Of Loose Gis and Lost Focuses
by butterfly'reborn
Summary: [Same story, same author, new account. I copied the first 15 chapters into Chapter 1 here for ease of access.] A sparring session between Ranma and Akane ends up with one of them being angry and the other one embarrassed...
1. Chapters 1-15

"Of loose gi's and lost focuses"

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Chapter 1 – A loose gi

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Ranma liked sparring with Akane, he really did, though he would never confess that to her. Just as he wouldn't confess lots of other things...

Oops, those thoughts wouldn't lead him anywhere, they'd just make him lose his concentration and he wouldn't be able to dodge Akane's blows so nonchalantly.

Funny how she always fell for it. She wasn't half as bad as he was always telling her, at least when she wasn't too angry. He had to be quite concentrated not to let any of her blows make contact. He had to be fully concentrated. Keep his thoughts away from that triangle of flesh that came to his sight every now and then, right there, where the gi top was becoming loose over her breasts. Every time she extended her hand it loosened even more, her belt giving up under the pressure. It was making him sweat much more than her attacks. He had to see how much more the gi top would loosen before she'd become aware of it.

But she was attacking him so furiously by that time - she hadn't been able to place a single blow so far - that she probably wouldn't notice until...

There he was, his concentration gone for a moment and he was on the floor of the dojo, Akane on top of him looking at him in astonishment. One single distraction and of course he'd have to pay for it. In the worst possible way. She hadn't realised what had happened, she had just noticed his guard was down for some reason and took her chance. But her momentum was so strong that she had knocked him on the floor and fallen on top of him.

Now she was looking at him with her big brown eyes full of confusion ... then wonder ... then realisation ... then something he couldn't grasp because it was so strange and so quick ... and then finally rage. The Akane-is glowing-red type rage.

The mallet-Ranma type rage. He stiffened in preparation for what was to come, while the back of his brain let in the notion that she was blushing furiously and trembling slightly.

"Ranma! You pervert!"

But to his surprise, she got up as quickly as she could and ran out.

Ranma lay on the same spot staring after her and seeing her disappear outside the door he caught himself thinking, 'What, no malleting?'

He sat up and looked at himself. She did have a reason to be confused.

He was having an erection.

Yes, he was aroused. The nearness of her, that slender body moving around him, always made him shiver slightly with desire, though he would usually push the feeling back by taunting her and making her even angrier.

This time he hadn't been able to control his thoughts. Maybe it had been that damn gi which wouldn't stay in its place, maybe it had been the perfume she was wearing, something flowery and slightly intoxicating. Or maybe he was still under the influence of that smile she had given him on the way home from school when he had decided to walk beside her and not on the fences as usually. He had barely kept himself at peace, controlling the urge to run away from her and from his own feelings for her.

Well, yes, he did have feelings for her. He finally managed to admit that to himself. It would have been quite hard to deny it considering the state of his groin...

And now she was mad. Again. He should have been used to it by now, he was the object of her wrath most of the time. He somehow managed to always say the wrong thing at the worst moment. He hated himself for that but he still hadn't found a way to keep his foot out of his mouth.

When he made her angry he knew it instantly and couldn't make his body dodge her attacks even though he could see them coming. When his words made her cry he always felt his heart tear inside. So he accepted the mallet and he tried to apologise afterwards. Even though he knew it was not always his fault, even though he insulted her and called her names, he just went on in the same old routine.

But why hadn't she malleted him to next week for his... state?

He tried to remember her expression after the fall. Surprise, confusion, big question marks and then... he couldn't define it, it had been so quick and strange.

And only after that, the rage.

Was he supposed to apologise? Right, what could he say? Sorry I had an erection over you? Forgive me for thinking you're the sexiest thing I've seen on earth? Sorry I couldn't control my body when being around the girl I lo...

No, he couldn't say that. He could admit it to himself, privately, on the roof, when he was alone with the stars and the whole city was asleep. But he couldn't bear yelling it out loud. Not even in his head. It was just too fragile. The world might be able to read it in his eyes afterwards, or, even worse, she could be able to read through his defences. What would he do if she did find out? Mallet him to Mars or something? He wasn't sure about her feelings at all. Sometimes he thought she might actually like him: the way she looked out for him, helped him, cooked for him (at least tried to do that), smiled at him, got jealous over the other girls...

But then she would get mad for no reason, call him a pervert, a sex-changing freak and wouldn't talk to him for hours over something silly, for days even...

He just couldn't figure her out, so he kept his feelings locked under his pride and stubbornness.

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Chapter 2 - Confession

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Akane just ran out of the dojo blushing furiously, almost fuming rage and embarrassment. How could he? She had always known he was a pervert but this...

She rushed through the house, luckily not coming across anyone, reached her room and slammed the door shut. She sit on her bed while still repeating to herself "How could he?!" and mumbling "baka" every now and then.

After a few minutes she heard a knock on the door, and immediately after, a voice saying: "Akane, can I come in?"

"Go away!" She wasn't ready to face him yet.

"Please, Akane, I need to talk to you."

"No! You pervert! Just leave me alone!" she yelled obstinately. She had to think this through first. But he wouldn't let her.

"I'm not a pervert!" Ranma protested as he slowly opened the door, as if he was testing if any immediate danger was hiding behind it. She hadn't locked it, he thought.

Good omen.

"I said go away!" Akane yelled, but she didn't raise from her bed and didn't sound too convinced either. She was kind of curious actually. What was it that he wanted to say, and why was it so important that he would risk being malleted for it?

"No. I want to talk to you."

"Well, then, what do you want to say?" she asked defiantly.

Ranma looked at the floor.

"I..." he staggered at a loss.

"Well?" she prompted, impatiently, after he remained silent for a moment.

"I wanted to apologize to you for... what happened... earlier," he finally managed to say, blushing.

"I don't know how it happened..." he went on, slowly. "I mean... I know... it's just that... I felt... and you...you were... so... and besides there wasn't much I could do about it... I mean... one can't control it... it just happened... I didn't even really notice until you..."

Akane went from fuming to confused to completely lost. Her mind unlocked completely for the first time since the accident and things finally started to fall into places. But she kept quiet.

Ranma, surprised at not having been clobbered yet, noticed the change in Akane's attitude, though he didn't quite understand what she was feeling. So he went on, trying to be absolutely clear. Well, at least as clear as he could get.

"So... I want to say... I'm sorry... though I'm NOT a pervert. I mean, I didn't even touch you, you were the one who fell onto me. And wearing that gi so loose... look at yourself..."

Akane looked down and blushed noticing that her top was indeed quite loose, too loose actually. She hastily rearranged it, while Ranma continued.

"... and I told you I don't fight girls but you wouldn't stop and... I don't want you to get hurt, do you understand that?... that's why I don't fight you for real... but today... I kind of lost focus... and you hit me... and we fell..."

"Ranma", Akane interrupted. He wasn't looking at her any more. It made him to nervous if he looked at her while he spoke.

"What?"

He turned to look at her eyes. Those beautiful eyes.

She was not mad any more, he could tell by her softened expression.

Akane, on her part, didn't really know what to say.

"I... you're not a pervert, you're right. I'm sorry for saying that. I... it's ok, I'm not... I was shocked... more than anything else. I get angry when I'm shocked. You know that," she smiled sheepishly. He smiled, too, just a little nervous grin.

She spoke shyly and almost in a whisper. She had been only half listening to his stammering, but something got through her: he noticed her loose gi. He got excited.

Lost focus, as he put it. Over her? Or was it just a hentai thing? She needed to know.

"Ranma, did you... did you become... uhmmm... like that ... because of me? Or you just...?" She couldn't finish. Her embarrassment was just too intense.

Ranma, too relieved seeing that she wasn't angry any more, didn't really understand the question. He blushed furiously too, though.

For once in his life, he didn't put his foot straight in his mouth, he did the right thing: he thought about what he was going to say. And seeing that he didn't have a clue as to what she wanted to know, he just asked.

"What do you mean, over you?"

And Akane, becoming even redder, if possible, and looking extremely vulnerable, tried to explain better, as well as she could.

"I mean.. do you... does it happen often to you...with the girls...?"

He stared at the floor. Then he looked up again, a strange light in his eyes. He did understand now, and he wanted so much to make her understand too.

"No. Never. I mean, I hate it when they hang all over me. It's just so..." He sighed.

"So you ... uhmmm... got excited... over me?" Akane asked tentatively.

"Yeah... I mean... not that I like you or something..." he blurted in his usual self-defence mode, but seeing her eyes go from happy at his "yeah" to sad and angry at the rest, he realized what he had said and added hastily, "I mean, you know I do care about you, why would I save you all these times otherwise, anyway? It's just..." Oh, god! Did he just confess that he cared about her? He went silent and pale, waiting for her reaction.

'Oh, god!' Akane thought. 'Did he just confess that he cares about me?'

She couldn't believe she had got that right.

"You do?" she asked staring in his blue-black eyes.

He tried to look away but couldn't. He sighed.

"Yeah, I do. I'd die for you, you know that," he said quietly.

She smiled one of those smiles. His knees trembled. But he had something else to say.

"I just don't know... you... how... and then you know my father... and the other girls would kill you... and I couldn't get you hurt... I couldn't live... "

He scratched the back of his head frustrated, not finding a way to tell her, to make her understand. She was standing there, smiling happily, blushing slightly, way beyond cute to his eyes. He was loosing focus again. But he tried to go on anyway.

"I like sparring with you, a lot. But I don't want to hurt you. And I like it when your gi gets loose... Damn it, maybe I am a pervert after all... I still remember the time you first met me as a boy..."

Akane blushed, remembering. But this time she didn't get angry. How odd, he thought.

"The fact is... I l-l-like you ... a lot. Even when you are uncute, when you clobber me or when you cook for me... I still like you a lot," Hey, the second time it was much easier to say: like you. He smiled. She smiled too. But she still didn't speak. Did that mean she didn't like him? She didn't feel the same way? He got scared at the thought. He had exposed himself so much this time, she could destroy him with one word. He retreated a bit towards the door.

She noticed his movement and the change of expression on his face. She snapped out of her blessed state and looked at him questioningly.

"What? What's wrong?"

"You... haven't said a word yet. You don't l-l-l...?"

Hard to say again. He couldn't pronounce the word again. It hurt too much.

But she understood it anyway. She rushed toward him, arms stretched, held him so tightly that she'd put to shame the best Shampoo's hug ever, and pressed her face to his chest.

"I love you," she said quietly, to his shirt.

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Chapter 3 - Closer

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She loved him. She loved him. She lo... She loved him? Did she really say that?

He could hardly breathe from her hug. He finally remembered to hug her back, but only for a moment. Then he pulled her a little away from himself to look at her face. She had tears in her eyes. Tears of happiness, he could tell by her joyous expression.

"You love me?"

"Yes."

Just like that. A single word. A whole world to him. He felt something melt inside himself, something that has been as hard as ice for so long. He pulled her closer again, burying his face in her hair, pressing her to his own body, at last, as he would have loved to do so many times before.

Akane was so happy, so filled with love and joy and relief at finally knowing he did care about her, that she didn't really mind her ribs almost hurt from the strength of his embrace, that something wet was touching her cheek... Was he crying? The invincible Ranma? The one who never lost control?

"I love you too."

He whispered it in her ear, almost afraid that if he said it too loud, it would break. She had heard him though. She raised her arms to his face, lifted it, though he seemed reluctant, ashamed of his own tears, and looked firmly in his eyes. Her expression was very serious.

After a moment, finding what she was looking for, she pulled his head back down and kissed him. Softly. His first real kiss. Her first real kiss. One that they both wanted. He responded with softness matching hers, his embrace became softer, his whole body shivering at the contact with her. She was trembling too. He felt it under his hands.

He felt it on his chest, her breasts shivering, her nipples hardening... Oh god, he was excited again. And she would know it in no time, being so closely pressed to his body.

Yes, she would know it immediately. She already knew. She pulled back, surprised and looked at his face, than down, than at his face again. She blushed. She'd be furious again, he thought. But she didn't move away this time.

"You... are..."

"Yes, I know." He was blushing furiously.

"Uhmmm..." she said, looking at his chest. "Good."

'Good? GOOD?' he thought.

"You mean.. you're not angry or something?" he asked aloud.

She just looked in his surprised eyes and said: "Kiss me."

He obliged, slowly, blushing furiously, loving every moment. He felt her pressing her body even more to his own and felt his groin respond to the closeness. He kissed her softly once, twice, three times... till he lost count. He didn't really know who opened his or her mouth first, he only found himself sucking at her moist tongue, caressing her teeth gently and forgetting everything else that wasn't that beautiful girl in his arms. He felt her hands on his neck and shoulders, he noticed his own hands moving down her spine as if they had a will of their own. He registered in the corner of his mind that she wasn't wearing anything - anything - under her gi top, since his fingers didn't come upon any strings on her back. He felt his body shiver at the thought. Without parting their mouths, he slid an arm under her knees and lifted her, taking her to the bed, sitting on it with her on his lap.

Akane didn't protest, either because she was too lost in the kisses or because she didn't mind it. She did take advantage of the position though, moving her hand from his shoulders to his chest, caressing his muscles through the fine silk of his Chinese outfit. It wasn't enough, though. She wanted to feel those muscles with her fingertips.

She needed to. So she found the strings that held the material together and undid them. Ranma shivered at her direct touch, lifting his head and looking at her.

He noticed that her gi had become loose again as he had lifted her and that triangle of flash was in front of him again. He gulped. What would she do if he... Mallet him to next week? God, he just couldn't resist. And then, she had untied his shirt, why couldn't he do the same? He tentatively caressed the edge of her top, running his finger up and down slowly, barely touching, now and than, the parts of her skin that were exposed. He felt her quiver, just has he had quivered when she unbuttoned his shirt. But she didn't stop him. Still he didn't want to ruin that perfect moment, so he thought he should better ask.

Just as he was opening his mouth to speak, she moved her shoulder so that his hand slid from the edge of her gi to her bare skin, just above her breast. He looked at her.

She was smiling, blushing a deep pink, which was not her usual embarrassed blush, but something completely different. Her eyes were bright and dark at the same time.

He moved his hand, slowly, as if tasting the new sensations. With the other hand, he loosened the top a bit more, so that it left a bare V down to her stomach, right above the belt, which wasn't fastened too tightly. The hand on her skin reached her nipple and Akane sucked in air loudly, closing her eyes. He stopped, confused, but she just continued to breathe hard, eyes closed, not a mallet in sight. He remembered how his own female body reacted if he touched it in a certain way, and he smiled.

Akane was enjoying this. Very much. He took the nipple between his fingers and tugged gently, playing with it and enjoying the sight of Akane's reactions. Wanting to give her even more pleasure, he used his spare hand to untie her belt and, never stopping his caresses, he lowered the gi from her shoulders, exposing her breasts completely.

He had seen them before, but never had she let him do it, and never had he been able to touch them either. She shivered feeling the fresh air on her naked skin and opened her eyes. She looked at him, shy and uncertain.

"Are they too small? Am I really that uncute?" she asked in a whisper, the answer to those questions meaning the world to her, coming from the only boy she had willingly exposed herself to.

He saw her doubts and thought about all the times he had called her uncute. Did it really hurt her so bad? Of course he had never really meant it! Didn't she know that?

"Are you kidding? You are beautiful. I love you. And they are the most beautiful things I've ever seen."

He caressed her breasts softly, with both hands, trying to convince her, to reassure her.

"They're smaller than yours as a girl, you told me so," she said, self-consciously.

"Maybe, a little, but I don't care. I love them. Can I kiss them?" he asked looking down, too shy to look at her while asking such a question. She believed him, precisely because of that shyness. She beamed, stretching herself towards his mouth, answering his question and accepting his kisses with little moans.

'Thank god she believes me. I have to apologize a thousand times for hurting her with my thoughtless words', he thought, his last fully rational thought before he completely lost himself in her body.

She had undone his shirt completely, before, and now she tried to pull it off him. He got the hint and helped her. When the black silk was lying on the floor, she pressed herself to him and held him tight, both of them enjoying the sensation immensely.

Something came to Akane's attention again though: Ranma's groin. Bulging visibly under his loose pants. She wasn't afraid any more, she was excited herself and very curious as to how it would feel under her fingers. Hard as it looked? She tentatively ran her fingers from his neck down on his chest, his flat stomach and... his hand stopped her. She looked up quizzically.

"You... are you sure we are doing the right thing? I mean, I love you and want you so much that I might lose control... But I'm a man of honour and I don't want to..."

"I know, Ranma. I know. I love you too and I know what you mean. Maybe it's not the right time yet, maybe it's not right. But I want you. I've wanted to be close to you for so long that..."

He caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers and put his other hand on her shoulder, looking in her dark eyes, filled with desire.

"I know you won't hurt me, you never would hurt me intentionally or let anybody else do, for that matter. Why can't we enjoy the moment for once? Just this once?" she pleaded and he felt the last bit of control leave him as her hand slid on his erect penis. He struggled to regain some of it, but lost the fight for the time being.

His brain locked and he was only sensations, feelings, delight, pure joy and desire for that beautiful girl in his arms.

She could tell he stopped controlling himself by the way he held her.

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Chapter 4 – Not going anywhere

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For just one short second, Akane stopped thinking about what they were doing. This was Ranma she was holding, this was her baka fiancé she was letting touch her in a was she had never let anyone touch her. This was Ranma's manhood she was carefully caressing through the black silk of his pants.

They had been fighting just minutes ago. They would probably be fighting again soon.

Was she really ready for something like this? Would she be regretting it afterwards?

Then she felt Ranma's lips on her breast, his hot breath on her skin, his hands on her hips. She remembered his words – he had said he loved her. He meant it, as far as she could tell.

The sensations were way too strong, the pleasure of being with the man she wanted for so long way too intense for her fears to win. She'd have time to think about it later, now she just couldn't think about anything else than him any more.

Ranma couldn't believe what was happening. He was expecting to be woken up by a bucket of cold water or something, and find his father laughing at him and taunting him to be more ready for combat.

Yet in his dreams Akane had never felt as soft under his hands, nor tasted as sweet nor smelled as good as this time. The best dream ever. Reality.

A sigh of pleasure escaped his lips at the thought. Or maybe it was Akane's hand caressing his most intimate part.

Akane wasn't really sure what to do, she just wanted to feel him, to give him the same pleasure he was giving her. She slowly ran her fingers down his erection and felt him shiver. Some kind of new power washed over her. She could make him shiver just with a small, feather-light touch. She tentatively held his manhood with her hand. It was hard. And big. And that was supposed to go… She blushed.

Ranma moaned. Did she know what she was doing? He stopped kissing her breasts to look at her. God, she was beautiful.

"Akane…" he said softly, not really having anything to say, just needing to her his own voice to make it more real.

She looked up, blushing slightly, gleaming, happy. Her bright eyes full of wonder, yet a bit embarrassed by the completely new situation she was in. She loved the sensation of his manhood in her hand, but it made her nervous too. And he was watching her hand with a strange expression. Pleasure, sure, but also a lot of surprise and a little tension. He had never looked more handsome to her.

She raised both hands and held his face, pulling him down, offering him her mouth.

He gladly accepted the gift and kissed her passionately. The touch of their bare chests electrified them over again. He found himself caressing her back, thinking how small she was under his big hands. She traced the contours of his muscles and felt his strength and his warmth.

When their lips parted they gazed in each other's eyes again. Akane knew she was not ready to go through with it yet. She tried to voice her nervousness, her inexperience, her fears.

"Ranma, I…"

"Shhh. Don't worry", he reassured her, noticing her worried expression, feeling those fears and that nervousness himself. Funny how he finally could understand what she was thinking. Funny how, for the first time, he knew exactly what to say or do.

"I want you…" Akane continued nevertheless, "… it's all so… but…"

"I know", he said, smiling fondly. He loved her even more if possible. For being shy, for being cautious, for being scared, for being Akane.

"You do?" she asked, doubtful. Did he know she was just too afraid, it was just too soon? Maybe they could wait…

"We have time for that, I'm not letting you go, now", he said holding her tighter for a moment. She was his, he wanted her to know that. She saw it in his eyes, and she knew in her heart.

"I'm not going anywhere."

She leaned her head upon his shoulder, resting her arms on his back. He just held her, trying to control his hard breathing, using all the knowledge of years of practising the art to regain his senses completely. He was still very excited, even if he knew they did the right thing, for now. Although he had enjoyed the contact with her body beyond words and he had practically lost control when she had touched his manhood, he still had felt a little tense himself about where all that was leading. When she had let go of him, he had felt both disappointed and relieved.

"I love you", she said.

"I love you too", he answered, without stammering. It seemed so natural, so right, to say it now.

She moved a little, and her nipples touched his chest. His body responded immediately.

"Uhmmm… Akane…", he said, "I think you should dress up".

She looked at him, surprised, her old fears creeping in. He wanted her to dress up? Was she still that uncute to him?

"You don't want to look at me like this…" she stated in a small voice.

Ranma noticed her tension and her strange tone. He looked at her. What had he said to make her feel bad? Didn't want to look at her…?

He got it.

"Not that, silly. Of course I want to look at you like this… I could spend hours looking at those beauties there…" he explained, trying to make her see his point. He caressed one of her breasts just to make his point… Big mistake… He was feeling his groin respond to it. Again.

"It's just that… I… kinda… like it too much… You see…" and he looked down to his crotch.

She looked too, and blushed.

"Oh."

She relaxed and retrieved her gi top on the bed behind her.

It was Ranma's time to feel self-conscious.

"It's not that I'm a pervert or something, I just like you so much that…" he said, not looking at her, searching for his own shirt.

She held him from behind, resting her hands on his stomach, her gi top already in place.

"I know you're not a pervert. I never really meant that, you know that, right?" She liked the thought of him getting all excited about her. She also wanted to apologise in a way for all the times she had called him a pervert. Had it really been that bad for him?

"Really?" he asked, still looking away, but placing his hands on hers. "I… don't you hate it when I turn into a … girl?"

She realized he had voiced one of his worst fears. She was glad he trusted her that much. And she was even gladder she could honestly reassure him.

"No, not really. I mean, it's still you, as you're always saying. And besides it's not your fault anyway."

"You know, you're right."

He smiled, turned around and kissed her lightly on the lips.

"Dinner's ready!"

Kasumi's ringing voice echoed through the house and they instantly parted, each stopping a couple of steps away. They looked at each other's expression. Pure fear. Akane started to chuckle. Ranma joined in. Soon they were both laughing like crazy, releasing all the tension of the past few minutes.

"Can you believe", Akane said, still laughing, "that no one interrupted us?"

"You're right! And no one was spying, or at least it seems so…" Ranma added. He was pretty sure they hadn't had anyone watching them, his senses were way too well trained to fail to notice their nosy parents or Nabiki's flashing camera. Their first real moment together would remain theirs only.

"Come on, let's go down", he said and took her hand, leading her to the door.

When they were out of her room, Akane held his hand tight for a moment, winked at him and then let him go. They didn't want the whole household to know anything had changed between them. Not yet.

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Chapter 5 - Running

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The Tendo household was not easy to deceive, though.

Nabiki hadn't been spying on them, but exiting her room to go to dinner, she happened to hear them laughing in Akane's room after she had heard Akane storm into her room and yell something at a sheepish Ranma in front of her door. Laughing didn't really fit in the picture, so she got curious.

So when they came downstairs she noticed a few things: first, they both were blushing a little and had funny expressions of almost-guilt on their faces.

Second, Akane was still in her gi. She always changed before dinner.

Third, Ranma was wearing a very silly grin beside the flush, although he was trying hard to hide it. She knew his acting skills were non-existent. She was more and more curious. And what did Nabiki do when she wanted to get information? She asked, of course.

"So, you two, has anything happened that you want to share with us?"

Akane and Ranma looked at each other, blushed even more and then quickly looked away.

"Nothing happened," Akane improvised. Thank good for those acting classes, she thought, hoping she'd be able to convince her older sister. "We had a… fight… and then this jerk came to apologise. I've forgiven him."

With that she sat. Ranma sat too, looking at her strangely.

Nabiki noticed that and targeted him.

"Ranma, you don't seem to agree with your fiancée. What really happened?" she suggested.

Ranma, who hadn't liked the way Akane had explained it at first, afraid that she might mean in, had calmed down when Akane had squeezed his hand under the table. He thought quickly and for once managed to get the right words out of his somewhat independent mouth.

"No, it's… I just didn't know she'd forgiven me." He looked at Akane, faking a sheepish smile. Akane smirked, congratulating him and herself inwardly.

"Yeah, right," Nabiki said, not too convinced, but unwilling to press the matter forward since Kasumi had just brought the food and she was quite hungry.

Mr Tendo and Genma weren't really paying attention at the conversation, they were just glad that for once the young couple's fight didn't result in another hole in a wall. Thoughts of their children getting along better and of houses being joined chanted randomly in their heads, but not more than usually.

Akane had to release Ranma's hand under the table when the food was passed around and she kind of regretted it. So did he, apparently, since he looked at her with a funny expression and then brushed his hand to his cheek as if to feel the warmth left there by her hand. Akane hung her head, trying to hide her blushing face with her hair.

This was going to be more difficult than she thought.

After dinner, Akane was feeling restless. She was afraid that either Ranma or herself would do something that would set the family thinking and make them figure out something had happened. She knew it was not considered normal for them to sit and watch TV together, or do anything together, for that matter, with the exception of sparring and fighting. She didn't want to spar (she blushed at the thought) and much less she wanted to fight with Ranma. An idea came to her mind.

"I'm going for a run, I need to relax before going to bed," she said raising, feeling Ranma's gaze on her. He didn't understand why she wanted to go out all of a sudden. Didn't she want to be…

But while Akane went to her room to change, Mr Tendo urged Ranma to follow his daughter, claiming as always that he had to protect her and to look after her and so on. A bulb went on in Ranma's head. But he had to act his usual self, not to get them suspicios. 'Akane, you're a genius', he thought.

"But she said she wanted to relax and besides who would ever want to attack a macho tomboy like her?" he protested, using his usual insults, hoping that Akane wouldn't get mad if she heard him.

"You have to go, son. She is your fiancée and you have to watch over her at all times", his father went on.

"It is dark outside and she cannot go alone", Tendo added. Ranma argued some more that as he usually did but stopped when he heard Akane's footsteps on the stairs. When he saw her face, he got scared. She looked furious.

"I said I wanted to go for a run. Alone," she stated and stormed out of the house, without looking back. She was a good actress, but she had her limits. Her fake anger could be kept on her face for only a limited time. She had heard Ranma call her names as usual, but she hadn't got mad because she knew he caught up on her idea and would follow her shortly, although he would pretend that their parents had pressed. At least she hoped so.

"Hey, tomboy", a voice startled her from right behind her. How did he do that? Sneak up on her like that, without her sensing him at all? Without stopping her run, she turned for a moment and saw his smiling face. She relaxed a bit and smiled back.

"Wait up", he said, speeding up to catch her. When he got to her, he scooped her up and started running much faster.

"Hey, what are you doing?" she shouted, grasping his shoulders to keep her balance.

"What do you think?" he said grinning.

Akane didn't know what to think of this, but she decided that she was curious and so she held on to him and waited. She noticed he was heading for the park.

She could not refrain from taunting him a little, though.

"Hey, I said I wanted to go for a *run* and I said I wanted to go *alone*!" she yelled at him in mock anger.

He looked at her surprised. "But… but I thought… it was just… for the show…" he stuttered.

She kept her angry expression for another moment, then smiled at him.

"Gotcha!"

"Oooohhh! You… tomboy!" he protested, making an angry face and holding her closer at the same time.

In the mean time – thanks to Ranma's speed – they reached the park. It was deserted and quiet, none of the usual strollers or children at play were there at such a late hour. Akane forced herself to look away from Ranma's face and took in her surroundings.

"How beautiful!" she exclaimed. Under a very bright almost full moon everything was covered in a silvery shine, every leaf of every tree sparkled in the chilly evening air and the peace was so unbelievably comfortable that Akane couldn't stop sighing.

Ranma just smiled. He agreed with a "Mmmhmmm", taking a quick glance around, more to make sure there wasn't anyone around than to admire the nature surrounding him, but returning his gaze to the girl in his arms.

He was still holding her, carrying her. He wondered idly how come she hadn't protested yet.

She motioned him to put her down and he obliged but didn't let her too far from his own body. Though he found her quite exciting in her T-shirt and shorts, he found himself very relaxed in the quiet moonlight and just wanted to be close to her.

Akane didn't mind. She turned around in his embrace, leaning her back on his chest, keeping his arms around her and putting her hands on his. She noticed the contrast between her tiny, pale fingers and his somewhat darker skin. It made her shiver.

"You cold?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"No, I'm fine", she said with a smile, although he couldn't see her.

They just stood there, in silence, enjoying the evening and each other's presence, for a while.

Eventually Akane moved, kept one of his hands in hers and started walking along a path dragging him along. He caught up, still looking at her. How could he had ever called her kawaiikune? He asked himself. She was more than beautiful, in the pale light of the moon, her hair moving softly with the breeze, her skin caressed by the silvery rays, her smiling lips dark and inviting. How could he resist?

He stopped, turned her around, while she looked at him questioningly. He pulled her closer, sliding his arms around her, and kissed her softly.

Akane, startled at first, gladly kissed back holding his broad shoulders. The kiss deepened and they soon forgot everything around them.

A tiny corner of Ranma's mind was wondering why they hadn't done this before, just walk and talk and kiss… He raised his head and gazed lovingly in his fiancée's eyes.

"RRRRRRRRiiinnnnngggg"

In the split of a second Akane and Ranma were five feet apart, blushing furiously, expecting the hated bicicle and it's purple haired proprietor to appear any moment.

And it did, of course. For once, landing near Ranma not on him.

"Hi, airen, what you doing in the park so late? Waiting for Shampoo?", the Amazon cooed in Ranma's ear, having long plastered herself on him as usually.

Akane was fuming. Her fists clenched, she stared at her rival, wondering how on earth had she managed to be at this place at the worst possible moment. What had she seen of the events between her and Ranma?

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Chapter 6 - Confrontation

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Shampoo was furious. She had spotted the pair from afar and recognised them immediately, though she could hardly believe her own eyes. Ranma and Akane, kissing? In a public place? And out together – alone – at such a late hour? Someone would have to pay. And Akane was just the person she had in mind.

On her part, Akane didn't know if she was more angry or more afraid of what Ranma's reaction would be. She was tempted to peal Shampoo off him herself but she wanted to see what he would do, so for once she controlled her impulse to pound them both into the horizon.

'Damn, damn, damn Shampoo!' Ranma screamed in his head, trying to keep his face away from the Amazon's lips. 'It's just my luck that she has a late delivery **today** of all evenings and that she just **happens** to go through the park when Akane and I are kissing!' He was frantically thinking what he could do. A quick glance at Shampoo's eyes resolved his doubts about what she had seen. Acknowledging this he also realized Akane was in danger. What could he do?

A quick glance at Akane made him decide that the first thing to do would be get himself at a safe distance from the purple-haired Amazon. Using all his martial arts abilities, he unfolded her arms from around his body and jerked away in less then half a second, so that Shampoo barely understood what happened. As Ranma saw that she was getting ready to throw herself at him again, he started speaking.

"Uhmmm, hi Shampoo. Can you please hold still a second?" he asked her with a sheepish smile and his hand behind his head.

Shampoo stopped, surprised. "What Airen want from Shampoo?"

Akane just glared, in shock, trying to understand what Ranma was up to.

"Well, you see…" Ranma was thinking hard what to say but his mind was blank, so he went by instinct. Which was good when it was applied to his martial arts abilities, but devastating when applied to interpersonal relations.

"I… don't you have a delivery to… uhmmm… deliver?" he asked, tentatively. Shampoo smiled cutely, sure about her victory.

"Shampoo always have time for her husband, no worry," and she jumped towards him. But he dodged deftly and spoke again.

"But the ramen will get cold… and besides…" he said as he was moving away from her constant attempts to grab him, "… I was here…" Moving around in order to avoid her, he went closer and closer to Akane, who noticed this but couldn't figure out his intentions.

"… I was here…" he continued while Shampoo was getting annoyed, "with my fiancée and… I don't want **you** to interfere!" he finished scooping up Akane and running as fast as he could towards some nearby trees.

"IIIIIIIIiiiiiteeeeeeeeeeeeee e" Akane screamed and tried to hold onto him. Her mind had stopped at the point when Ranma had said "with my fiancée" and hadn't restarted working since. She just let him do what he was doing, and that was carrying her far away from the screaming Amazon.

"Ayaaa!" Shampoo yelled furiously, picking up her bicycle and trying to follow them. But Ranma chose a path where she couldn't follow with her bike, as the shrubs and bushes where too thick for her to make it through.

She was furious, she could just abandon her bike and hop behind them. She was fast and Ranma wasn't his fastest with an armful of Akane. She was so tempted to just follow them, beat Akane in a pulp and take Ranma to the Nekohanten and eventually to China. Once and for all.

But she had her delivery. Great-grandmother wouldn't be pleased if she learned that she had neglected a client, even for Airen's sake.

"Airen, come back! Shampoo fight for Airen, kill Akane and take him to China!" she screamed helplessly. But they were already out of sight and she just stood there fuming for a few more minutes, already planning her revenge. Then she turned around and went to finish her job as soon as possible, so she could go home and plan her next move with Cologne. The situation was getting out of hand. The too-too-violent girl was becoming dangerous. If something happened… Her claim… No, she didn't want to think about that! It wouldn't happen, she would make sure of it. She rushed out of the park and into the streets of Nerima.

Ranma hopped from branch to branch as if she had nothing in his hands. Akane held on for her dear life, afraid to move and fall, afraid to see the Amazon still following, yet strangely comfortable in her fiancé's arms.

Exiting the park at the other side, jumping on a nearby building and proceeding from rooftop to rooftop, Ranma continued his run, not so much for fear that Shampoo would still be following – he knew she wasn't, he sensed it when she had turned around and left – but just for the fun of it. He was holding Akane in his arms and it felt good. Her arms were around is neck, almost squeezing the air out of him. 'Heck, this can be compared to Shampoo's best glomps…' he thought with a grin. Her body was pressed to his and he didn't want to let go. So he just ran on.

After some time, Akane regained her senses and realized that Shampoo surely wasn't following them any more – they were on the outskirts of the city by then – so she raised her head a little from Ranma's chest and looked at him. His happy expression surprised her. The memory of what he had said to Shampoo came to her. "I was here … with my fiancée and… I don't want **you ** to interfere." Akane smiled.

"Ranma, I think we can stop now, she's not following," she said, quietly, still holding him tightly.

"You think so?" he said, looking down at her face. She was smiling. He slowly came to a stop on an abandoned building with a flat roof with no lights around, just the gleam of the stars and a pale moon above them. He didn't let go of her.

As much as she enjoyed being so close to him, she felt guilty at being carried for so long. His arms had to be a little tired by then, even if he was Ranma…

So, unwillingly, she said: "You can put me down now."

He caught her eyes and reluctantly started to put her down. She kept her arms around her neck, though, so she slid along his body and stood up, pressed to him full length.

"Mmmmm" she moaned, looking at him. "Thanks for the ride."

"You're welcome," he blushed, slightly excited by her nearness.

"You know what you just did with Shampoo there, don't you?" Akane asked, a slight shade of worry present in her sweet voice.

"What do you mean?" he asked, confused.

'Typical', Akane thought but said out loud: "You just called me your fiancée in front of her, and after she saw as kissing at that…"

A light bulb went on in Ranma's head.

"Oh, god, I didn't really think much about what I was saying, I just wanted to get away from her and be with you…" Akane held him tighter at that. "Damn", he continued, a frown on his face, "now she'll be after you, and Cologne, too!"

"Shhh" Akane pressed a finger on his lips, afraid he'd say something wrong as usually. "Don't ruing this evening now, it's too perfect. We'll worry about her tomorrow, and besides, she's far away right now, isn't she?"

"Sure, I made sure of that. We must be at least fifteen miles from that park right now," Ranma said proudly. Then, all of a sudden, he noticed that his arms were still wrapped around Akane and that her body was **really ** close. He could feel her breathing, he could feel her chest pressed to his own, her hips a little lower than her own, her thighs practically glued to his legs… He felt a wave of something hot overwhelm him.

Akane noticed his change too, mostly because she suddenly felt something pressing against her lower belly. Something hard. She shivered.

"Well, then", she said, not sure what to do, "let's forget about her and go back to before she interrupted us."

She was surprised herself at her boldness. She blushed furiously, though he couldn't really tell because of the scarce light. Unable to face him any more, she fixed her gaze on his Chinese shirt.

To say Ranma was surprised would be the understatement of the year. He was completely taken aback. He was certain Akane knew his 'state', she sure felt it against her own body. And he had expected her to be angry at him for picking her up like that and running away from Shampoo, not to mention the fact that Shampoo had tried to kiss him as she always did.

Yet, there they were, in a tight embrace, closer than ever before as a matter of fact, and she said they were to resume from where Shampoo had interrupted them. What had they been doing? It dawned upon him.

For her part, Akane was getting nervous. Why was he taking so long? Didn't he want to kiss her? She knew he was… well… **very** **excited**, so what was the problem? She decided she couldn't wait any more and tried to back away from his embrace, but he just held her tighter.

He tilted her head up with a hand and looked at her closely. Something in his eyes made Akane relax and change her mind about leaving. He lowered his head and kissed her. Deeply, passionately, not tentatively as that afternoon. His hand roamed over her back, lower, lower… He reached the elastic of her shorts.

Akane was so lost in that kiss, she felt she could melt in it. She felt Ranma's hand on her body, caressing her back tenderly as she played with his pigtail and caressed his neck lovingly. She sensed his hand heading towards her bottom and she tensed just a tiny bit, her feelings a mix of excitement, curiosity and fear of the unknown. Was he going to…?

Ranma sensed Akane tensing that tiny bit, but he also felt her body pressed to his groin and her fingers caressing his neck and lobes and he just wanted to **feel** her even more. His hand roamed lower and he felt the soft but firm curve of her buttocks under his fingers. Akane moaned. Ranma rubbed his hand up and down, pressing her even more to himself. He kissed her again, feeling his control slipping away.

Akane was in a whirlwind of emotions, most of which she was unfamiliar with, feeling light-headed and dizzy. Ranma was touching her so sensually and she could feel just how excited he himself was. She also had a weird feeling of wetness between her legs, one she was not completely unfamiliar with, yet much stronger than anything she had experienced ever before. She felt him pressing their bodies even closer and she felt a hot rush over her whole body. Any bit of control she had retained drowned in the sensation.

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Chapter 7 – Back home

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The kisses were getting deeper and deeper, Ranma's hands were roaming over her body and she felt his ragged breathing on her cheeks between one kiss and another. She was breathing rather quickly herself. She felt an almost incoherent need to feel his skin and she moved her hands to his chest, searching for the clasps that held his Chinese shirt together. She undid a couple of them, pressed a palm on his warm skin and felt him shiver. He raised his head from her face and looked at her, his eyes glazed with passion.

Suddenly he pulled away, his eyes focussing again. Akane just stared in shock.

"What? What's wrong?" she asked, her breath short.

"No, nothing…" he stammered, trying to regain his control. A very hard task indeed, with her warm and inviting body so close. He had to turn away from her to get his senses back. "I… we… we said it was not time yet…"

Akane was trying to calm down, trying to understand what he was saying. She was not as good at controlling her emotions though, so she just looked at him puzzled and almost hurt.

Ranma noticed that hurt and he tried to say the right thing before it turned into anger.

"Look, I want this, I mean… I … don't want to stop but… it's just not right. And besides we're outside and someone could see and…" He sighed frustrated, unsure, unable to express himself. Afraid of sticking his foot into his mouth again.

Akane still looked at him a bit puzzled, but she finally regained enough composure to really listen to what he was trying to say. Of course they had to stop. They **were** outside. And they had decided to wait, a few hours before… He was right. But more importantly, she could tell he wanted that as much as she did, he wanted **her**, and that was enough for her. At least it would have to be enough for now. So she walked over to him, held him from behind and whispered to the back of his shirt: "I know, I… want you too… but… let's go home."

Ranma turned around, happy that she understood, glad that she hadn't got mad. He smiled his lopsided smile and caressed her cheek.

"My cute tomboy…" he whispered back.

Her eyes grew bigger for a moment, then mischief crept in her gaze.

"Are you sure you're saying the right thing? I mean, wasn't I the **uncute** tomboy?"

Ranma could tell that the insult still stung, but she was taking it rather well. Of course he wouldn't be Ranma if he didn't call her names at least once every so often. But for once, instead of teasing her on, he simply said: "Where did I ever get the idea of you being uncute? I already told you that to me you're beautiful. I mean, you are a tomboy and all… but I don't mind that."

Akane frowned at the first part of that last sentence, but brightened up when he continued. And she smiled even more sweetly when she heard the rest of his little speech.

"But uncute? I guess I was just temporarily blind or something…"

"Well, I'm glad you regained your eyesight finally," she said, holding him tighter.

They stood there, under the stars, for a few more moments, then they finally let go of each other and decided it was time to head home. Their parents would start worrying soon. And that would mean looking for them. And they didn't want to be found in compromising situations. Not yet.

Still they were too far away to just run home, Ranma thought. Sure, Akane ran every morning, but her usual route was six miles, while they were a lot farther from home than that. So for the second time that evening, without a warning, he scooped her up and started roof-hopping towards the Tendo household.

"Hey, I can walk by myself, you know," Akane protested, though not too vehemently. After all she liked having an excuse to be close to him some more.

"We're too far to run on the floor, this way's faster," he answered without stopping.

After a while, when they got closer to their home, Akane suggested he let her down and they ran the rest of the way, otherwise their parents would get suspicious seeing her not sweaty and tired as she usually came home from her runs. He agreed and the run in silence for a while.

When they got to street where the Tendos lived, they stopped for a moment. Their hands were still locked.

They felt a little self-conscious, not used to what was happening to them, so they just looked at each other, smiling happily. Ranma scratched the back of his head and broke the silence first.

"Well, … uhmmm… I just… wanted to say … I really enjoyed this evening. And I really care about you. I … " It was still difficult to say it. 'Why?', he wondered.

She hushed him, putting a finger on his lips. "Shhh, someone could be listening…" She smiled. She knew it was hard for him to express his emotions. So she decided to make it easy for him.

"I know, Ranma, and I do too."

He smiled and squeezed her hand a little before letting her go.

She went ahead to keep up the pretence of not knowing he was following her, and soon after Ranma entered the house through the laundry porch door, as he usually did to avoid Akane noticing he had been out.

The evening went on smoothly, their fathers were so engaged in their game of shogi – or rather in that botlle of sake that was lying on the floor, almost empty – that they didn't notice they had been away longer than usually.

Akane took her bath first, as usually, then went to her room wondering if Ranma would come by to say good night. To give her a good night kiss. Or two. Or… She had to stop thinking about that! She blushed furiously, hiding her face under her blanket.

After his own bath, Ranma wondered about the same thing too, not knowing if he should do it or not. Coming to her door, he looked at the little duck with her name on it and knocked.

"Come in."

He stepped into her room, closing the door behind her. She was smiling.

"I hoped you'd come to say good night," she whispered.

"Yeah, I thought I might…" he said, walking to her bed. He sat down next to her as she sat up, resting her back on her pillow.

"I wanted…" he started again, but she hushed him.

"Nabiki could be listening in!" she warned almost inaudibly.

Ranma froze in panic at the thought for a moment. If Nabiki found out… Then he relaxed.

"She'll find out soon enough, you know how she is, and we'll just have to deal with her somehow when she does. Right now I want to say good night properly and then I'll go. If she's watching, she'll at least have something interesting to see," he said, speaking not quite so inaudibly as Akane had. He smiled and leaned towards her, kissing her softly.

"Good night, Akane-chan," he said, got up and left, turning at the door just to smile at her surprised expression, the closing the door quietly.

Akane remained in the same dazed state for quite some time. Then she just crept under her covers again and fell into the most pleasant sleep she had had in ages. And dreaming the best dream too. Now that she knew what it felt like to be kissed by Ranma, her dreams gained a whole new perspective. And nobody was interrupting. And they didn't stop after those first few moments, in her dream.

After exiting Akane's room, Ranma found himself face to face with … Nabiki.

"So what were you doing in Akane's room at such improper hours, Ranma?" she asked with her usual smirk. For once, he didn't feel intimidated, but decided to have some fun himself.

"I went there to give my fiancée a good-night kiss," he stated, staring directly at her eyes, without a flinch.

Nabiki's eyes grew wide, then became little slits again.

"Yeah, right, and next thing you'll tell me she's finally got it that Ryoga is P-chan, right?" she retorted.

Ranma just shrugged. And went to his room. Nabiki frowned, thinking, but decided that nothing really interesting could have happened if Ranma was that self-confident. So she shrugged too and went to the bathroom.

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Chapter 8 – The morning after

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The morning woke a very embarrassed Akane and an equally embarrassed Ranma.

Akane's first thought was: 'Did everything really happen? Did we really…? And did Ranma really say…?' She felt her cheeks get very hot and tried to calm down before she went to the bathroom for her morning routine. She knew it was real, she felt giddy at how much her relationship with Ranma had changed in just one day. She could hardly believe she had behaved the way she did, around him. Then again, she thought, she had wanted that to happen for so long that she just couldn't stop. Almost.

She thought about all the times she had believed things had changed between her and her fiancé in the past, especially after the failed wedding, and how disappointed and hurt she had felt when he had acted like the usual jerk or denied that anything had happened, calling her those same names over and over again.

"He better not do it this time, or else…" she mumbled, slightly afraid, while she was brushing her hair.

The bathroom door opened suddenly and a very sleepy Ranma appeared. Akane saw him in the mirror, but couldn't face him, so she just looked down, afraid how he would react.

"Oops, sorry, the door was open…" he apologised, bracing himself for the usual beating. But nothing happened; he noticed Akane was looking down rather sheepishly.

His thoughts that morning have been chaotic just as much as Akane's. Only he was wondering if she would wake up feeling angry at him for kissing and touching her the way he did the day before. He was so happy that they had finally confessed their feelings, happy to know she felt the same way, yet knowing her temper and never being sure what would make her go over the edge at a given time, he was not sure what to expect.

So when he saw she wasn't going to clobber him for walking into the bathroom while she was inside, he stood there, at the door, not knowing what to do.

"It's ok," she finally said, without looking at him, "you can come in, I'm almost finished anyway."

Though he was surprised, he quietly stepped in and closed the door. He walked to her.

She didn't turn.

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Tell me what happened yesterday," she asked, still looking away.

"You mean you don't remember?" Ranma was confused. "We… uhmmm… kissed and you said you love me… and I love you too…" he trailed off, seeing her turning, eyes large and the happiest expression he had ever seen on her face. She held him as hard as Shampoo would have, or even harder, only this time Ranma wasn't bothered by it. He was relieved, though still confused. He held her back, resting his head on top of hers.

"I was so afraid," she whispered to his shirt, "so afraid you'll deny everything again and…"

"Not any more," he whispered back. "I love you."

It was still hard to say, but much less than before, since he knew she felt the same way.

She lifted her head and smiled one of her heart-melting smiles. Their faces were so close that Ranma couldn't resist. He lowered his head and kissed her lightly.

"I love you too," she said afterwards.

They gazed at each other in marvel for some minutes then Akane spoke again.

"I'd better go before anyone starts wondering where we are. I bet Nabiki would be overjoyed to find us like this."

Ranma smiled. "Yup, she's already suspicious. She saw me coming out of your room last night. But I think I might have found the right approach to keep her off our backs."

"Really? And what would that be?" she wondered, walking toward the door.

"Just a little joke I made," he said inconclusively. "I might tell you some other time."

Akane was curious, but she knew it was too risky to stay there and try to convince him, so she just said they'd meet downstairs for breakfast and went to her room. Luckily there wasn't anyone to see her and ask questions.

A little later, the family was gathered for breakfast. Akane and Ranma were sitting next to each other as usually, still feeling very shy and very awkward. They just glanced at each other every now and then, noticing the other one blushing lightly, trying to avoid staring and trying to hide any possible changes in their behaviour not to make the family suspicious. Fortunately, their fathers were too busy eating, so they didn't really notice anything. Kasumi was busy passing the food, yet if someone looked closely enough, they could notice her smile was larger than her usual Kasumi-smile. She said nothing of course.

On the other hand, Nabiki wasn't busy and did notice something was going on. Added to what she had seen the day before, she was now practically sure her sister and her future brother-in-law were up to something. She decided she would wait and see what happened, and of course she would make sure to have a camera and a tape-recorder ready to catch any evidence.

After breakfast, Nabiki went ahead as usual and Ranma and Akane headed for school together. Ranma jumped on the fence out of habit. Akane wasn't pleased with that, but kept quiet. They actually both kept very quiet, afraid to say something somebody might hear, and on Ranma's part, afraid to say something that would get Akane mad.

When she thought they were far away from home enough, Akane decided to say something.

"Why do you always have to walk up there?"

Her tone was not her usual annoyed one, yet Ranma looked at her cautiously. She didn't look angry, just a bit nervous, maybe.

"Balance practice, you know that," he said. Then he decided to jump off and joined her. "Then again, I might skip it just for now, I'd rather be here right now."

She looked at him, almost sure he was teasing her again, and noticed a slight blush on his cheeks. He was smiling shyly, so she just smiled back and they walked on in silence.

When they were halfway to the school, Ranma suddenly exclaimed: "Hey, how come Shampoo hasn't come yet today?"

Akane went from happy-as-a-bird mode to red-glowing-angry mode in less than one second.

"What do you mean? Do you miss her, you pervert?" she yelled at him.

"No, of course not, tomboy!" Ranma exclaimed, adding the insult out of habit again. "It's just that she **always **runs over me with that damn bicycle of hers and I'm surprised she's not here today. And after she saw…"

He was interrupted by a familiar sound: "Rrrrrrriiiiiinngggg!"

Before Akane or Ranma had time to blink or say anything, Shampoo was already there. Ranma barely managed to dodge her.

"Nihao, airen!" the Amazon exclaimed with a smile, though she was eyeing both of them suspiciously. She had heard them yelling at each other and was surprised to see them angry at each other, after she had seen them kissing the night before. She was ready to challenge Akane and defeat her once and for all, but now she wasn't so sure any more.

"Uhmmm, hi, Shampoo," Ranma said sheepishly, trying to decipher her mood. Was she planning to attack her rival? He wouldn't allow it.

"Why airen ran away yesterday? Shampoo saw him kissing violent girl, she sure. She kill violent girl and get airen back and take him to Amazon village!" she exclaimed.

Akane looked slightly nervous. She had forgotten about the girl seeing them in the park. She was surprised at the fact that Shampoo wasn't glomping Ranma as usually, which meant she was very serious about what she was saying. Akane looked at Ranma, her anger forgotten.

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Chapter 9 – Secret training

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Shampoo was not the smartest of girls, yet she wasn't as dumb as she appeared either. She knew what she saw and she wanted to react to that. Not only she had seen them kissing, she had also been left behind by the two, tricked into running all over Nerima for nothing. That was an insult to her Amazon pride, so she was rather angry.

She looked at Ranma, waiting for an answer.

Ranma fidgeted, trying to come up with a solution that would buy him some time. Time to prepare for a serious fight.

"Look, Shampoo, can we talk about this some other time? I mean, we have school in a couple of minutes and I don't have time to explain everything to you now…" He was interrupted by the purple-haired Chinese.

"Airen no make excuses. Do airen love kitchen-destroyer? Shampoo need answer, so she knows what to do." Her eyes sparkled dangerously, moving from the boy to Akane.

Akane stared at Ranma, half scared half expectant about what he would say.

Ranma saw her expression and cursed inside. He didn't want to hurt her, he didn't want to lie any more ('not after yesterday', he thought), and he knew he couldn't just admit it to Shampoo, because she would attack Akane immediately. Of course he also knew Akane was in no shape to survive such a fight. He just stuttered, thinking about what to do.

"Ranma, prepare to die!"

The three figures turned towards the origin of the well-known phrase.

"Ryoga!" Ranma exclaimed. 'Boy, I have never been so glad to see him in my whole life', he thought while avoiding a bandanna. Ryoga came closer and started attacking Ranma in his usual furious manner. Ranma kept dodging his attacks, being careful to leap a little further from the two girls every time, but never letting them out of his sight. Who knew what Shampoo might try to do with Akane.

"Airen stop playing with bandanna boy and answer question!" Shampoo screamed.

Akane quickly understood what Ranma was doing and decided to flee the scene too.

"Ranma! It's late! We're going to be late again! I'm going to school, and you'd better come too if you don't want to spend the morning holding buckets!" she shouted in her famous angry tone, running towards Furinkan.

Before she knew it, Shampoo found herself in the middle of the street, alone. 'Oh, well', she thought, 'I'll have time for this later. I'd better do the delivery now. Akane won't run away, and I know where to find them both.' She smiled viciously, picking up her bicycle and continuing her trip.

Ranma lost Ryoga a couple of blocks away and roof-hopped to the school just in time to see Akane entering the building. He'd have to thank Ryoga for his help with Shampoo. Or rather not, he decided on second thought, Ryoga might want to know what was Shampoo so angry about and Ranma wasn't ready to tell him either.

He ran to his class and even managed to avoid punishment. Glancing at Akane, he noticed her looking back and half smiling at him. 'Thank kami, she isn't angry!'

School was boring as usual. At lunch time, Ranma and Akane behaved as they usually did, which meant they didn't try to be too close but they didn't avoid each other either. A couple of secret glances that they had managed to exchange had kept Akane happy and bubbly all through the classes, while Ranma pretended to sleep so that he could watch Akane without anyone noticing.

He was thinking about Shampoo's words. He knew there would be a fight, it was inevitable. And he also knew Akane would hate him if he interfered. Which left him with only one acceptable option: training her. Properly. And without anybody noticing it: if Cologne should find out, she would definitely try something funny to prevent her from learning. The only way he knew to keep such training from Cologne was not telling anybody. Not even Akane. The only safe secret is a secret no-one knows about, right?

On the way home, Ranma jumped on the fence again and Akane looked at him surprised.

"Are you going to be up there?" she asked.

"Yup. I gotta keep in shape. So should you, as a matter of fact," he added nonchalantly.

"Are you saying I'm out of shape?" she almost growled.

"I'd say so, yes. I bet I can get home running on the fences, go in the dojo and do fifty push-ups before you even get there."

She saw red.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. And if I do, you have to do my homework for literature too," he smirked. He hoped his plan would work. Heck, he knew it would.

"**Oh** **yeah?**" she yelled even louder. "Ok, then, you've got a bet."

"Fine. Let's go." He said and started running, leaving her staring at him for a couple of seconds. Just as he had planned. She would have to do her best not to loose too badly. Of course she could never win against **him**, he thought, grinning.

"Hey, that's not fair!" she shouted at last, running after him with all she had. She was used to her morning jogs but she never ran too fast in the mornings, so she quickly found her self out of breath.

Ranma was way ahead, of course, but she wouldn't give up. Ok, he might come home before her – just because he had cheated, anyway – but she wouldn't let him do a single push-up. She would 'push' him up herself, with her mallet.

She finally reached the Tendo residence and ran directly to the dojo.

"Forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight…"

She saw him in the middle of the training hall, doing push-ups. 'Forty-eight?' she thought. 'He couldn't possibly have done all those push-ups already, I saw him right in front of me just seconds ago! He's cheating!'

"Hey", she yelled, trying to conceal her lack of breath. "You're cheating! You've just come, I saw you!"

"… forty-nine and fifty!" he finished, unconcerned with her outburst. He was expecting it. He was counting on it. He smiled inwardly. "There, you lost and I didn't cheat."

"Of course you did! You couldn't possibly have done all those push-ups in the few seconds you were here before me!" she pointed out angrily again, still standing at the door of the dojo.

"How would you know, you weren't even here! So I expect to get a very good mark for my literature homework…"

"What? You…" she charged, her lack of breath forgotten. "… cheater!" And she throw a series of punches toward him, missing him each time, as usual.

"What? Why are you angry anyway? You lost, I won, it was fair and square, so now you have to…" Ranma teased on, dodging her attacks in his usual way, making her just barely miss and thus infuriating her even more.

"I don't have to do anything!" she yelled between a kick and a punch. "You cheated from the beginning, running off without warning, and you cheated on the push-ups, too!"

She was getting angrier and angrier and so she was trying harder and harder to hit him at least once, as she always ended up doing. Her anger made her attacks clumsier and easier to avoid for Ranma. The only problem was she was still wearing her school uniform. Which meant she was wearing a skirt. All those kicks and jumps were doing nothing to conceal her beautiful legs from his view and he was getting rather hot. He didn't want to find himself in an embarrassing situation again, especially not when Akane was this angry, so he decided to end the session as quickly as possible.

Akane of course had no idea about what was going on in Ranma's mind. Her feelings for him were forgotten for the time being – after all, she had been hiding them for so long that knowing somewhere in her heart that he felt the same way wasn't really toning her anger down a bit. She attacked again and again, with all her clumsy strength, not bothering with the fact that her skirt flew up every time she kicked toward Ranma's head, nor was she aware that her blouse had been pulled out of her skirt and that a couple of buttons had come undone. She was so furious with her fiancé that the rest of the world disappeared. In fact, at a certain point, everything disappeared. Even Ranma.

She stopped in mid-punch and looked at the spot he had been half a second before. Where the hell…?

She felt her legs swept from under her and fell hardly on the floor, with a body pinning her down.

How…?

She was breathing hard, but so was he. He was glad she was too upset to notice it, though. He grinned at her.

"Tired?"

She tried to move, but couldn't do anything.

"Get off me, you pervert!" she yelled.

"Hush!" he said, quietly, "you wouldn't want the whole house to come in and see us now, would you?"

Akane gasped, thinking about their position. After the suspicious glances everybody had given them that morning, they would be in deep trouble.

That morning… Everything came back to her. Her feelings submerged her and the anger momentarily vanished.

Ranma noticed the change in her expression but wasn't sure what it meant.

"Ranma…" Akane said, softly, looking into his eyes. "Why?"

"Why what?" he asked, defensively, still pinning her to the floor.

"Why are you teasing me this way? I thought…" she looked away sadly.

Ranma gulped loudly. 'Damn', he thought, 'I need to train her, but I don't want to hurt her feelings like this…'

"Come on", he said out loud. "You know how I feel about you. I told you I … love you." I was still kind of hard to say, though it got easier every time, he thought inwardly.

Akane blushed, looking at him again, suddenly aware of his body practically lying on top of hers.

"Then why?" she repeated.

"Because it's fun ," he said simply. He lowered his head and kissed her.

O_O O_O O_O

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Chapter 10 – In the dojo

O_O O_O O_O

She lost herself in that kiss, forgetting about everything except those lips pressing hard on her mouth, those arms that were not holding her still any more, but caressing her face, her shoulders, her arms, that body that was lying on top of her, and her hands, suddenly free and almost with a mind of their own – hers was too overwhelmed to give any coherent instruction to the body – roaming on his back, accidentally finding their way under his loose shirt and touching his skin. She felt him shiver and heard him moan as the kiss grew more passionate. She could do nothing but kiss back, react to his every touch, her essence changed into a knot of emotions and instincts.

Eventually, though, as it usually happens to all of us humans, they both had to get some fresh air in their lungs, so reluctantly they broke the kiss, looking in each other's eyes.

The passion Akane saw in those blue-black eyes took her remaining breath away. She thought she would never be able to breath normally again. She caressed his cheek with her hand, smiling a little.

He couldn't resist, he knew somebody could come to the dojo any minute and find them on the floor, in a very compromising position, but he just had to kiss her again. Her soft smile, her beautiful eyes full of love and passion… When had he learnt to recognise those feelings inside them? He was glad he had.

Akane closed her eyes as she saw him close the distance between their faces again and immersed herself in that magical feeling once again. This time, though, her brain registered other stimuli besides the touch of his lips on hers and his hands on her arms. She became aware of the thumping of his heart, matching hers, she heard his ragged gasps for air through his nose, she felt his hand on her hip, squeezing gently, while the other one was slowly caressing her skin around her waist… A quick question of how he had got under her blouse formed in the back of her mind but she forgot it as she noticed something hard pressing on her thigh. A rush of desire went through her whole body. She slid her hand deeper under his shirt and reached the soft skin between his shoulder blades, scratching her nails almost obliviously on his back.

Ranma was in heaven. He felt her passion, and felt his own passion grow and he caressed her skin, moving his body a little so as to be able to reach more of her. His fingers met the soft lace of her bra.

"Ranma, Akane, lunch is ready!"

They froze like deer, staring at the door, expecting to see Kasumi walking in on them or – even worse – standing there already. She wasn't there, but they were still motionless, not sure what to do for a whole five seconds, Akane's hands tucked deep under Ranma's shirt and his hands in turn caught under her blouse. After the initial shock, they both thought 'Thank kami Kasumi decided to call us from outside!'.

"Coming!", they finally remembered to yell back.

They looked at each other, noticing each other's deep blush. Ranma lifted himself to a seated position, Akane followed suit and tried to make herself presentable.

Feeling a little embarrassed, Ranma watched Akane tucking her blouse back into her skirt, remembered how she had looked during their sparring session earlier, and let his mouth fill up the silence without connecting it to his brain first.

"You know, you shouldn't fight in those clothes. I guess now I know why all those perverts wanted to fight you every morning. The view gets rather interesting when you start the kicks and jumps…"

Oops. Ranma's brain awoke at the sight of Akane's change of expression.

"What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously, ready to get angry again. Akane was always Akane, after all. And her temper was always just a step away.

Ranma punched himself rather hard mentally, arguing with himself on how he always found a way to ruin a perfect moment with a stupid comment. He tried to connect his brain to his mouth again and it actually worked.

"I mean you really do look hot, your skirt flies around and we get a pretty good view of your legs."

Akane just stared, not sure how to react yet. So Ranma went on.

"And earlier, when we were sparring", he blushed, remembering how the 'sparring' had ended, "your blouse came undone a little and I really couldn't resist…" he trailed off, looking at his knees.

Akane stared, surprised. So that was what he had been… And she had looked… hot?

She blushed, looking down too.

Minutes passed, till Kasumi's voice was heard again.

"Well, are you two coming or not?" The little shade of impatience in her voice made them jump to their feet and rush out of the dojo.

After lunch, they went to Akane's room to do some schoolwork. Akane decided that he had beaten her as far as coming to the dojo first was concerned, but she insisted on the fact that he had cheated on the push-ups, so she didn't have to do his homework for him. Ranma protested loudly for a long time, and in the end they found a compromise: she would help him with the homework, but wouldn't do it for him. Ranma grudgingly accepted, knowing he would never get his way with her.

'Besides, I like spending time with her, even if it's doing homework', he thought, blushing a bit.

They were sitting on the bed, with their notebooks on their laps. Ranma tried to move closer to her without her noticing, but she did notice it of course and she just smiled, trying to concentrate on the questions, while leaning a little on his shoulder.

He grinned inwardly, feeling her shoulder against his and put his left arm around her back, while balancing the notebook on his legs and writing down the answers with his right hand.

The exercises took them twice as much time as they should have, but they didn't mind.

Later, Ranma decided to train a little, so he told her he was going down to the dojo. He remembered his plan of training her just as he reached the door.

"I've got to keep up my shape if I want to be the best. You wouldn't know what that means, would you?" he teased on purpose, hoping to coax her into another sparring session. Not the lying on the floor etc. session, he corrected himself, real sparring this time.

"What?" she jumped to her feet. "I practice a lot too! And I'm in perfect shape!"

"Then you won't mind sparring with me a little, I could use a partner, even though you're clumsy and slow as a slug…" The last words were pronounced from the stairs: he knew she would get really angry at that so he ran to the dojo.

"Ranmaaaaaa… I'm not clumsy and I'm not that slow!" He could get her so angry! She knew she wasn't as fast as him, but she wasn't that bad either, was she? He was touching a very sensitive spot there, and he knew it. And she knew that he knew. So why was he doing it? And after they had had such a wonderful time studying together like that…

She reached the dojo and looked around and he wasn't anywhere.

"Ranma, where are you?" she yelled. She was sure she saw him come inside.

"Right here!" he exclaimed as he jumped behind her and made her fall on her but sweeping her feet off the floor.

"Waaahhhh!" Akane yelled, landing hard. "You…! What do you think you're doing?" she screamed, getting up in a second and running toward him. Of course by then he was on the opposite side of the dojo and as she approached him full speed, he just ran away in another direction, thinking about how to improve her fighting abilities. She was strong, no need to work on that. But she was slow and clumsy. Well, not clumsy, more like she lacked the right balance. That was it! He would start with balance. Now, for balance practice… What better way than running on a fence? His father taught him that way, and it had worked. Sure it would work for Akane too. The only thing that was left for him to figure out was how to make Akane actually run on a fence. Hmmm…

While Ranma was coming up with his brilliant ideas on how to train his fiancée, the said girl was growing angrier and angrier. She couldn't lay a finger on him, of course, but she could tell he wasn't even paying attention. That infuriated her.

"Ranma, you jerk! Come here and fight me for real! Stop running around like a mad cat!" she yelled, among other things.

A certain word caught Ranma's attention.

"C-c-c-cat? Where…?" he said, looking around, his irrational fear awaken.

Incredibly enough, it so happened that a stray cat chose that exact moment to meow loudly outside the Tendo dojo. Just as Akane was about to punch Ranma in the head, he screamed and jumped to the ceiling, attaching himself to the wooden beams.

"Make him go away! Make that… that… furry thing go away!" he screamed in panic, his plans totally overridden by his fear.

Akane blinked at him, still for a moment. Then she went rather calmly to the door, opened it and looked outside. She turned back towards her hanging fiancé and plainly informed him that the cat was gone.

"Are you sure? I mean, he was…" Ranma babbled, still hanging on the ceiling.

"Yes, I'm sure, you idiot. A great martial artist you are… afraid of cats…"

She knew it was unfair to tease him about his phobia, but she was still rather angry at him so she did it anyway.

"Wait a minute!" he yelled back, jumping back to the floor and walking up to her. "I **am** a great martial artist, I'm **the best**! And you…"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," she said, turning around, her eyes glinting in a strange way. Too bad Ranma couldn't see that glint. He would have been able to see what was coming.

"I **am**! And don't tease me about c-c-c… You know it's all my dad's fault!", he went on, so absorbed in his little speech… "he threw me in that pit," …that he never saw her leg… "and left me wooooahhh!" … sweeping his feet under him.

Akane turned her head and showed him her tongue and ran off laughing. Ranma was so stunned for a moment that he forgot to get up.

'You never know, maybe there is hope', he thought, 'this is Anything goes, after all.'

Of course the balance training would have to wait until tomorrow. Kasumi would be calling everybody for dinner in no time. But maybe, just maybe he got an idea that would do the trick.

O_O O_O O_O

O_O O_O O_O

Chapter 11 – Balance training

O_O O_O O_O

It was easy to make Akane do almost anything when she got angry enough, Ranma thought later that night, lying on his futon and trying to sleep. For once he did not fall asleep the instant he got his head on the pillow, he started thinking about his fiancé and her training.

'She surely is strong enough, for a girl. Hell, she is stronger that lots of the men I know… The way she handles tables and rocks and all sorts of stuff when she is mad at me… Woah! I bet she doesn't even know how she does that. Her ki is quite strong, she just needs control. And balance. Now if I could just get her mad enough to…'

He smiled mischievously, a plan forming in his mind. Soon he fell soundly asleep, despite the loud snoring of his panda-father.

The next morning Ranma woke up late as usual and of course he and Akane had to run all the way to school again.

"You uncute tomboy," Ranma yelled from in front of her, still walking on the pavement since they hadn't reached the part of the street with the fences. "Why didn't you wake me up in time? Now we have to…"

He was interrupted by an indignant scream.

"**WHAT**? I **did** wake you up, but you just wouldn't get up. It's all your fault that we're almost late again," Akane yelled, fuming already.

'Yes!' Ranma thought, triumphantly. 'Just a little more angry…'

"Yeah, but you're always being so slow, you eat slowly, you dress up slowly, you walk…" He was interrupted again.

"I do **not!**" she yelled, running after him, read to hit him. Ranma started to run a bit faster, still on the ground. He eyed the narrow wall that was in front of him, separating the street from a garden. It was a brick wall, about 25 cm long, and it would serve his purpose perfectly.

"Ranma, you jerk, wait!" Akane kept screaming, running after him.

"Nah," he teased again. "I don't want to be late because of a slowpoke like you. And besides, you couldn't catch me if I had my feet tied together and a weight attached to them!" He was laughing, just to anger her more. And of course she fell for it completely.

He jumped on the brick wall, which was just half a meter high at the beginning, but he knew it would get increasingly higher. He hoped she'd follow him in her blind anger, and she did. He ran on checking on her every now and then, to make sure she was following him and she wasn't going to hurt herself by falling from the brick wall. He taunted and teased her to keep her angry and make her forget where she was actually running. Wow, he thought, it was working!

Akane was furious. How could he tease her like that? How could he after… His words just got her madder and madder, all she wanted to do was smack him right into next week and damn it, she was going to get him!

The wall was now about a meter and a half high and it was almost finished. Ranma ran on, jumped off it and stopped for a second to see what Akane would do.

He was surprised how elegantly she jumped off without even noticing the height, but he didn't have time to think about it, she was closing up on him and he knew he had to run away as fast as he could.

"Ranma!" Akane yelled again. " Wait up and face me like a man!"

"Oh, yeah?" he said, struggling to maintain his temper at her taunt in order to continue with his plan. "A real man doesn't fight **girls**, especially if they're slow and clumsy like a certain tomboy…" He laughed mockingly again, fuelling her anger and getting ready to jump on a trash container near a solid, two metre high fence. If she did as he hoped, he'd see if she really was a natural… or just a lucky beginner.

"Ranmaaaa!" She yelled again, running even faster. He waited patiently on the container until she was about to smack him with her giant mallet. Just before she swung the mallet, he jumped on the fence, making a face and sticking his tongue out. Akane fumed and jumped directly on the container, swinging her mallet again.

'Woops!' Ranma thought, 'so she **is** a natural, she just has never really tried before!' But he had to stop wondering about her abilities, since she was too close to him for his safety. He ran a few steps on the fence and then stopped again.

"You'll never get me, slowpoke. You're too clumsy to get someone like me!"

Akane saw red and jumped on the fence to follow him. Just like when she lifted tables and rocks, she didn't think about what she was doing, she was completely focused on her fiancé and on how to smack him on the head with her mallet. So she ran on the fence after him, shouting insults and admonitions, while he kept fuelling her anger to keep her busy and away from realizing what she was doing.

The night before, while thinking about his plan, he had remembered that his father had often made him do things this way: teasing him into moves that he never knew he could do, and then, afterwards, making him practise them until he mastered them consciously too. That was about what he intended to do with Akane. The only problem was he hadn't decided yet whether to tell her about his training her or not. He had chosen to see what happened first and decide on the spot.

That exact moment, though, wasn't the best one to make such a decision, as Ranma sort of realized when Akane almost made him fall into the canal because of his lack of attention. They had been running on that fence for quite a while now and everything had gone well. Of course that was the time when something had to go wrong. It's Ranma and Akane we're talking about, right?

"Hey, Ranma, wait up!" a voice was heard.

Ranma identified it as Ukyo's and silently cursed under his breath. He couldn't stop, Akane was too angry and too close. What could he do?

"Akane!" Ukyo yelled, surprised. "I didn't know you could run on fences! When did you learn to do that?"

Akane noticed the girl only when she called her name.

"What are you talking about? I can't run on fences! I'm not a sex-changing monkey!" she yelled back, still running after her fiancé. Then she slowed up a little. And a little more. She started to walk. Finally she came to a stop. Her eyes blank. Her hair ruffled and her cheeks red from the workout. She started swaying dangerously. She was about to fall in the canal. Or, worse, on the pavement. From a two metre high fence. She was scared. And who was to blame?

"Ranmaaaa!" she yelled, already on her way from the fence, falling towards the hard street.

Just before she hit the ground two strong hands caught her and she found herself in a tight, protective embrace. Her cheek pressed to his chest, she could hear his heart beating wildly and strangely enough it registered in her brain through all the fear and anger she was feeling.

Ranma's heart was indeed beating hard, and it wasn't for the run. He had seen her slowly come to a stop, her eyes full of confusion at first, as she had realized where exactly she was, and the fear building in them. Or maybe it was lack of confidence rather than fear. Either way, he knew it wasn't good. And he knew what was about to happen. He turned as quickly as he could and jumped off the fence, running towards her hoping to be fast enough. Luckily he was.

Ukyo watched everything in awe, speechless. She saw Akane stop, start falling, and from the corner of her eye she noticed Ranma running towards her and finally catching her. It all took less than five seconds. But it was much more than that since he had caught her. Why was he still holding her like that? Why was she motionless? Wasn't she supposed to yell at him, hit him? Wasn't **he **suppose to jump back immediately? Ukyo felt a familiar pang of jealousy.

"Is everything ok?" she asked innocently, approaching them and purposely destroying the moment of confusion between them.

Ranma hastily put Akane on the ground and stepped away. Akane blushed and humpfed, looking the other side. Ukyo congratulated herself.

"Uhmmm… yeah, I guess," Ranma remembered to answer Ukyo's question. "We were just…"

"What?!" Akane snapped at that, remembering her anger. "You jerk! I could have killed myself! Why did you make me get on that fence?"

'Yes!' Ukyo thought, deciding to forget about the long moment Ranma had held Akane in his arms. 'That's the real Akane, the violent, uncute tomboy Ranma hates!' She secretly smiled, knowing the two were too busy with their argument to notice her. She left, headed for school. It **was** rather late.

Ranma was at a loss for words. He wasn't about to tell her about his plan of training her. Not now. Not yet. He just looked away, silently. This only made Akane angrier, of course.

"Well? What is it now? Are you going to answer me or not?" she yelled, her aura appearing around her.

"I…" Ranma started, but to his extreme relief he was saved by the school bell which chose that exact moment to ring.

"Waahhhh! We're late again! And it's all your fault!" Akane yelled, running toward the gate, which was still quite far.

"It's not my fault. You're the one who stopped running, tomboy!" Ranma shot back.

Of course they were very late. And of course they had to hold buckets for a looong time.

They ignored each other for a while. At least they tried to. Every now and then, Ranma would sneak a peek at her and she would look at him from the corner of her eye. They did their best not to make the other notice it, but sometimes their eyes met and they both averted their gazes immediately.

"Humpf."

"Feh."

"Jerk," she murmured.

"Tomboy," he mumbled.

And they pointedly looked away from each other for a while again.

Ranma wasn't actually angry at her or anything, he just had to keep up the appearances. In fact he was rather pleased with himself and with her, though he wouldn't have put it in these exact words. She had a lot of potential. She could become really good. If only he could make her go by the instincts rather than by her conscious thoughts. She had collected so many bad habits on the way and that was why she was so clumsy, so graceless, so slow. It would be a problem to continue training her without telling her, though. She wouldn't fall for the same trick over and over again. Or would she?

O_O O_O O_O

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Chapter 12 – Akane's fears

O_O O_O O_O

Now why would Akane fall for the same trick again?

And again.

And again and again.

How could she just get so angry at her fiancé that she managed not to notice where she was walking, what she was doing and how **good** she was getting at doing it?

These were questions that Ranma didn't really waste too much time on, although occasionally they did find his guard down. As long as it was working, he decided, he didn't really care. He was sure she wasn't just too dumb to figure it out (though the thought did come to him, considering the P-chan business…). Sometimes he wondered why she would get so mad at him. Maybe he could ask her that after the training was over. For now it would remain an unsolved puzzle.

At the moment he was lying in the schoolyard, having finished his bento and enjoying the peace and quiet for a change. His mind drifted to his fiancée.

'I mean, she knows I love her. We even…' He blushed remembering some particular scenes. 'And she said she loved me too. She should know that I don't really mean what I say… Maybe she's just playing along… Nah. She couldn't fake that kind of anger.'

He grinned remembering some of the moments of her secret training during the last few days, like the morning after her first fence-walking, when she had actually fell for practically the same trick and run on the fences almost to the school gates. He had decided to get off and make her follow just in case someone else would show up and make her suddenly realize her position again. Just when he had jumped off, though, coming around a corner he had seen Kuno, in his usual attire and with the usual bokken in his hands. The upperclassman had addressed him with his usual "Saotome you vile cur" and attacked him promptly, but before he could even come close to him, he had found his face pressed to the dirt, one foot on his head and one on his back.

"Stop it Kuno, we don't have time for this, we won't be late again today!" Akane had yelled already running after Ranma, who had turned towards the school to hide his grin at her performance. And he didn't **only **have in mind her lifting skirt and beautiful legs, which had been quite exposed when she had jumped off the fence like a pro …

Has it been just days from that sparring session in the dojo? He could hardly believe it.

Akane was indeed getting much better concerning her balance. Her control was of course another issue. And there was another problem. How could he make her realize what she was able to do and avoid her getting to scared to prove it to herself? He really didn't have a clue about that one.

One thing that surprised him was how fast Akane had actually become in just a few days. He almost resorted to his female form, which was much faster than his male side, just to see if she could match him (or rather, her). He still hadn't completely rejected the idea, the problems being that he generally hated being a girl, especially at school, and he didn't want to admit openly (not even to himself) that girls can be better at something than guys. Not even his own girl-side.

Another surprising fact was that Shampoo had disappeared since that one time they had seen her on their way to school. Ranma had a bad feeling about it, but in a way he was glad he had time to train Akane. And himself.

He noticed that his speed was improving too, even as a male. Being a natural, Akane was almost as fast as Ranma himself in catching up new techniques. This made him rather proud of her and he regretted that he was unable to let her know.

Akane was sitting among her friends, finishing her lunch. The girls were busy talking and they didn't notice her quietness, for which she was glad. She wouldn't really have been able to explain her mood to anyone.

She looked towards her fiancé. He was eating alone, smiling blissfully and looking even more adorable than usually. Her heart swelled. Her eyes felt hot for a moment. 'Why?', she asked herself.

'Why does he do it? Why does he mock me all the time? My skills as a martial artist, my figure, my cooking, my everything… He said he… loved me…' She still felt so unsure of it that it was almost hard to think about it. 'But then, when Shampoo asked him if he did, he just ran away, avoiding the answer. Was he just playing games with me? Like the time he had said I was cute, so long ago?'

She looked away from him, hiding her sad eyes under her bangs, staring at her empty bento. She heard the bell go off and she sighed as she steadied herself and went back to the classroom.

Ukyo was seated at a distance both from Akane and Ranma. She was studying them carefully. She had been doing so since the morning incident with the fence, noticing Ranma's unusually nasty comments towards Akane and her anger at him. She decided not to interfere for the time being, but she kept a vigil eye.

'Has he finally realized that he doesn't love her? That she is just a violent, uncute tomboy who can't cook to save her life?' she wondered, stars forming in her eyes for a moment. Then she realized what he had just thought. 'Why would he have to realize that he doesn't love her? Why would I have the two of them and the word love in the same sentence at all?'

Images of the past, recent and not, fleshed through her mind. Ranma holding Akane long after he had caught her, Ranma always checking on Akane, to see if she was ok, even in the schoolyard or at the beach, Ranma saving her countless times from anybody or anything…

'No! No!' She shouted internally, refusing to accept the images. With tight lips and a stern expression, she rushed back to class. The bell had just signalled the beginning of the next period.

On the way home from school, Ranma and Akane surprisingly both remained on the ground, silent, each lost in his own thoughts.

'Well, at least he is not insulting me again,' Akane thought bitterly. 'He has been doing it every single moment we spend together for ages now!'

'Wow, it feels kind of nice to just walk for once. I guess we deserve a little break after all.' He smiled inwardly, remembering he had a little cash on him, since Nabiki hadn't been bugging him lately (she was too busy extorting money from someone else, he though bitterly), so he could treat Akane to some ice-cream.

Being Ranma, he had failed to notice her sullen expression, so he just grabbed her hands and enthusiastically exclaimed:

"Hey, Akane, let's get some ice-cream. My treat!"

His grin almost slipped as he noticed her sorrowful expression. Was there anything wrong, he wondered?

Akane's expression went from sad to surprised to a mix he could not define. She didn't reply, she just stared at him, her hands still in his.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.

"N-nothing," she asked, still looking at him in that undefined manner. That was precisely what bothered him the most. If Akane was angry, she hit him, she didn't look at him like that. He could take the pain, but he couldn't take her lost look.

"Come on, what's bothering you?" he insisted, concern showing in his eys.

Akane finally snapped out of her stupor.

"What's bothering me?" she almost yelled. "You've done nothing but insult me for **days**, called me names, criticized everything about me, mocked me, offended me in almost every possible way…. **And you have the nerve to ask me what's bothering me?!**"

"Uhm…yeah?" he said sheepishly, letting go of one of her hands to bring his own to scratch his pigtail.

"**Ranma!**" Akane yelled, ready to pound him to the moon, her free hand already reaching for the mallet.

"Oh, come on, Akane, you know I don't mean it! It's just… Well, it's nothing…" He couldn't tell her about the training yet, not yet. He noticed he was still holding her hand. She hadn't pulled it away. Maybe he could calm her down.

"You know how I feel about you…" he said quietly, squeezing her hand lightly and looking straight at her angry eyes. "You I … but I can't say it here… someone might…"

The mallet disappeared the moment their eyes met. As he spoke, Akane's anger melted, leaving her confused as before. She knew how he felt… He had said he loved her. They both had said it.

"But… then… why?" she asked, defeated.

"It's just… It's just our game. You know we've been doing it for so long that… It's just…" He didn't know what to say. So he changed the subject. "Why don't we go get some ice-cream? Come on!"

He pulled her by her hand and started walking towards the nearby ice-cream parlour. She let him pull her and eventually caught up to him. She still wasn't happy with his explanation, but she decided to let it go and enjoy herself. Till it lasted.

They entered the parlour hand in hand, though neither of them was really aware of it. Some students stared at them wide-eyed, unbelieving. Saotome Ranma and Tendo Akane holding hands? 'Oh, wait till I tell the others!' was probably the most frequent thought that crossed their minds.

Akane and Ranma didn't even notice them. They bought their ice-cream and went out again.

"Let's go to the park," Ranma proposed and Akane gladly accepted. Her demeanour was still a little subdued and Ranma tried his best to cheer her up, telling her jokes heard from Hiroshi and Daisuke (some of which made them both blush…), talking about some past adventure or the other and generally trying his best to get her to smile.

Akane couldn't resist. She had rarely had the pleasure to see that side of Ranma. The relaxed, funny, even witty teenager who talked to her like a friend would. Or, even better, a boyfriend. She laughed at his jokes, at first quietly, just a small smile, then her sunny smiles came out and made Ranma want to jump around like a monkey. He didn't of course, he was enjoying his ice-cream and his company way too much to risk changing into a girl by getting splashed at a fountain or something.

He led her to a bench, set down and watched her sit down next to him, close enough to make them brush slightly against each other, to make him feel her warmth, to give him that tingling sensation wherever he felt a contact.

She leaned back, stretching her legs. He copied her motions, lifting his arms behind his head, in his usual manner.

'Is he going to hold me?' she wondered.

'Will she mallet me to Mars if I hold her?' he asked himself. 'Ah, here goes nothing…'

He lowered his right arm resting it on the bench behind her back, carefully. He was barely touching her, not even daring to look at her and see her reaction. Her back stiffened a little. He braced himself for the mallet.

But it never came.

Instead, he felt her head on his shoulder and an arm being pushed behind his back, the hand finding rest on his waist.

He relaxed visibly ad moved his arm to hold her more firmly. Neither said a word for a long while.

From afar, a figure clad in man's clothes with a giant spatula on the back was watching, tears in her eyes. Why wasn't she running towards the couple? Pulling them apart? Smacking both of them with the spatula?

After some time, she quietly turned around and headed home. She had a restaurant to run after all. No matter how broken her heart might be.

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Chapter 13 – The cherry blossom bet

O_O O_O O_O

The Nekohanten was busy as always and Mousse was rushing back and forth from the kitchen to the tables delivering ramen and other Chinese specials while Shampoo was taking orders and flirting with the customers as usual. They left good tips, so she had no problem with doing it.

Her smiles were warmer than usual though. She was happy. Or at least she would be soon. And she was so very excited with anticipation that she could barely contain herself. She even hadn't pounded Mousse for a whole day! **He**, for one thing, was glad of it, but had he known the reasons behind it, he wouldn't have been that merry.

Cologne hadn't been very surprised at Shampoo's news about Ranma and Akane's behaviour a few days before. She was way too old to misinterpret their behaviour from the very first moment she had seen them together. She knew she only had a chance till the two didn't realize each other's feelings. Nothing would separate them once they became a true couple. Ranma was far too possessive of her as it was, and vice versa.

So when she heard of their kiss in the park, she started thinking of the ultimate plan to get that stubborn boy to marry her great-granddaughter. The fact that there were other ways of resolving the matter respecting the Amazon laws was nagging her at the back of her mind, but once again she chose to ignore it. Instead, she skimmed her "special recipes" book looking for something appropriate.

Never-Leave-Me-Ramen? That sounded interesting enough. She read the recipe and its effects quickly, wondering if it would work. All of her other plans have failed miserably or have backfired in one way or another. Why would this be any different?

Because she was an Amazon elder and Ranma was a mere foreign male. It **had** to work. She tightened her lips and went to look for the ingredients. She would need to get out of town to get some of them.

Mousse, who was still delivering the dishes to the customers kept coming in and out the kitchen and of course noticed Cologne reading the old Amazon cook-book. Since Shampoo had got mad at him for mixing up the orders since he was unable to tell a customer from a plant, he currently had his glasses on, so when passing behind Cologne's back, he had noticed the name of the recipe she was interested in.

The old ghoul didn't really pay any attention to him, knowing he was blind as a bat and being unaware he was wearing glasses for once. Mousse on his part avoided making her notice his interest in what she was doing so he never stopped too close to her.

Another drugged pot of ramen. Mousse sighed inwardly, knowing what that meant. He didn't know what particular effect it would have but he knew exactly what would happen. Another scheme, another try at getting Ranma to marry Shampoo. So that's why Shampoo was so happy.

He wondered why they were at it again, seeing that every single plan they had previously conceived had inevitably failed. As smart and experienced as Cologne was, she should have figured out that she couldn't make Ranma do what he didn't want. Not for long anyway. Was Cologne really that dumb? Or did she underestimate Ranma so badly? He had been taught never to doubt an elder's decision but this… They had been in Japan for over three years and nothing of what they all have tried, including his own attempts at defeating Ranma, had worked. Why not just give it up. After all it was over three years, and Shampoo did have a way out if…

He just shrugged his shoulders and went on with his work. It wasn't in his power to change things anyway, as much as he wanted to.

Akane's secret training (secret to her, anyway) went on. Once again, Ranma wondered where the Amazons were and how come Shampoo hadn't attacked them again. His bad feeling about it was growing by the day. Thank god Akane was learning quickly. Currently they were working on speed. Which meant that Ranma had to think of a new way of training her every single day. Some of them were quite funny, and they both enjoyed them, like the cherry blossom catching bet.

They were sparring in the dojo when Akane sent Ranma flying out after another set of insults he dished out. He hit the cherry tree in the garden face first. A couple of minutes later, he came to and the first thing he saw were the cherry blossoms falling of the tree, swirling in the air and falling gently to the floor. The second thing he saw was the concern written all over Akane's face.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

"Urgh…" he just groaned, still a little dizzy. "Why d'ya have ta…" he started after a moment but was interrupted by Kasumi's voice.

"Akane, Ranma, look at the mess you've done with the cherry blossoms! And I just finished sweeping the garden a little while ago, too!" Kasumi's slight frown and a tinge less sweet than usual voice made them both shiver.

"I'm sorry Kasumi", they both blurted out at the same time, looking down.

"We'll clean the mess right away, don't worry", Ranma added.

"Thank you Ranma, I'll appreciate that. Oh, and Akane, be sure to help Ranma, after all **you** threw him in the tree in the first place." Akane cringed in guilt.

Kasumi turned and re-entered the house smiling her trademark smile (Plus and indefinable shade that some might have interpreted as mischief, but that was Kasumi we're talking about, right?).

Akane was still cringing, not daring to look at Ranma. She had been trying so hard to control her temper, but the jerk just couldn't keep his big mouth shut. She was so happy he was willing to spar with her more often lately that she decided to refrain from punching him too hard for his stupid insults. But he just wouldn't stop and in the end she always lost it. Funny, though, she had a strange impression of being able to hit him with more ease and to throw him even further than before. It was probably just an impression anyway.

Ranma watched the display of emotions on her face not really understanding it, then sighed and got up, heading for the broom and sack stuffed with petals and leaves that was leaning against the house wall. Akane followed him, picking up the dustpan.

They worked in silence for a couple of minutes. When they had almost finished, a light breeze raised some of the collected petals spreading them in the air, making them fly around again.

"Figures", grunted Akane, staring at the petals with a frown. She was about to continue picking up the ones already on the floor when she noticed Ranma jumping around her in quick moves, catching the flying petals in his hands.

"What are you doing?" she yelled, "you're making them fly even more!" Despite her angry voice, she could not feel but mesmerised by his gracious dance in the middle of those beautiful cherry blossoms. He was so…

"No, I'm not," Ranma replied unaware of her longing glance, too busy with what he was doing.

"I'm catching them before they land. You should try it too."

"Why would I want to do that? Jump around like a crazed monkey. Feh." She looked away, picking up the fallen blossoms again.

"Because it's fun", Ranma simply said. "Anyway, you couldn't do it even if you tried, being so slow and everything…" he teased.

"Oh yeah?!" she exclaimed, getting up.

'Yes!' Ranma thought, watching her getting ready from the corner of her eye.

"I just have to catch them, what's difficult about it? Anyone can do that." And she started catching the blossoms herself.

"Yeah, but you have to catch as many as possible before they land and also empty your hands in the sack every now and then… like this…" he demonstrated, "without any blossom touching the ground in the process. I bet you can't do it."

His smirk made her decision for her.

"You're on. I bet I can catch more than you!"

"Prove it!"

"But no special moves like the Chestnut Fist!" she remembered.

'Oops, too bad she thought about that!' Ranma thought but agreed.

So they both jumped to and 'fro for a while, both catching every little blossom, every single flower that happened to be floating in the air. Occasionally they would go for the same one and their hands would touch, a tingle spreading through their hands to their whole arms and bodies. Every touch made the sensation grow stronger.

Akane was in turmoil. She was doing her best trying to catch the blossoms; she knew Ranma was fast but she also wanted to show him that she wasn't the slow klutz he took her for. So she doubled her efforts every time she noticed Ranma stealing a blossom she was aiming for. For once she was not getting angry at him. Even her previous ill mood had dissolved and she was actually having fun. Those tingles provoked by their random contacts were stirring her insides in a pleasant way. And Ranma's smiles were taking her breath away far more then the physical exercise.

The breeze came and went away, making their game last longer, stealing some of the blossoms away, towards the gate, and making them run after them and turn around laughing as they realized they couldn't get them.

Sometimes Akane wondered if Ranma had figured that not all of their contacts were 'accidental'. She didn't really care.

Ranma had indeed noticed it and wondered in turn if Akane knew that **none** of the contacts were accidental. He purposefully aimed for the petals Akane was after, just to brush her hand, just to barely touch her hip, to be able to make her skirt flutter even higher, to get an even better view of the little amount of cleavage her T-shirt allowed for.

He knew it wasn't right. He should have been thinking about her training alone. Concentrating on making her push her limits even farther. But she was too beautiful, too stunningly beautiful, almost dancing with her natural grace between the blossoms, her hair floating around her face from all the movement, her face radiant, her eyes shining. And the sun was too golden in the approaching evening and the breeze too delightful after the warm day, and the peaceful feeling just too great for him to just ignore it all.

There was just one more tiny petal floating right now. One petal, at an equal distance from both of them. Ranma saw her move towards it and jumped himself. Not to catch the petal. To catch her.

Or rather, to pin her down and kiss her without giving her nor himself time to think.

'Hey!' Akane wanted to yell, finding herself on the ground with her fiancé on top of her. Instead she found her lips sealed by his and his tongue hungrily searching her mouth. Not that she minded at all.

After she recovered from the initial shock, she started kissing him back with the same fire and tried to hold him but find her hands still held down by his.

She broke the kiss and he looked at her in surprise. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes on fire and his breathing a little too fast. His senses were too dimmed to notice the same signs of excitement in Akane's face. All he could think was, 'Didn't she want this too?'

"My hands. Let them go," she breathed. He stared blankly at her for a moment, not understanding at first, fearing what was in store for him later. Did she want to leave? Throw him in the pond? To LEO?

He let go of her hands preparing to accept the blow. Maybe he shouldn't have pinned her down like that. Maybe he should have… But then, she **had** kissed him back… So why was she going to…?

Suddenly her attack came, and found him completely unprepared.

O_O O_O O_O

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Chapter 14 – Ukyo's heartache

O_O O_O O_O

Akane saw the passion in his eyes being partly replaced by a hint of fear (she was Akane and she was famous for her temper, after all) and she smiled inwardly. As soon as he let her arms go, she grasped his sides and deftly turned him so that she was on top of him. Surprise flashed on his face, but the last thing that she saw before closing her eyes was the slow smile spreading across his lips as he realized what she had in mind.

He couldn't really think much while Akane was kissing him with such passion, yet the little part of Ranma's brain that did not go to la-la land was thanking the kami for this beautiful girl in his arms. After the relief at her action ebbed, he started fully feeling the position they were in again. He could feel her every curve, and the experience still felt new. She was warm and tender and her breasts were stretching the gi in a way that he found most enchanting.

Akane's arms, which were keeping her from lying on him completely, were becoming weaker by the moment as her desire to feel his body pressed to hers in all its length was growing. She did not have much choice anyway since when Ranma regained some control of his faculties, he pulled her down himself, holding her tightly and caressing her back slowly. He broke the kiss just to press his lips to hers again and again in countless soft and moist motions. The fabric of the gi was rough and he couldn't feel her skin, so he tried to find a way under it from the bottom. But to do that, he had to press his hand on _her_ bottom. As he realized what his hand was touching, his blood sped up considerably.

Akane was so lost in their kisses that the added sensation didn't really register in her brain except for making her moan a little louder.

The fact that they were in the Tendo garden and that anyone – from their fathers to Nabiki and to all their occasional guests – could see them did not even cross their minds, they were too absorbed in each other. But the world was still spinning and this was still Nerima and someone was bound to see them.

Standing at the gate of the garden, staring at the most compromising position she as ever found Ranma and Akane in, was a girl clad in man's clothes with a giant spatula.

Her first impulse was of course to shout something and try to separate them. The mere fact of being caught would have been enough to break them apart and make them feel more than embarrassed, she knew that. But she hesitated.

The picture before her was so sensual, so unusual that she was mesmerised for a few seconds, almost imagining that it was her that Ranma was holding so tenderly, that it was her lips that he was kissing so passionately, that it was her body his hands were exploring…

A small sound coming from Akane startled her and brought her back to reality. She shook her head and blinked repeatedly to focus her thoughts again. The couple was still oblivious to her.

What was she supposed to do? She couldn't pretend she hadn't seen them and she couldn't dismiss the whole thing as unimportant because she knew the truth.

Ranma didn't love Ukyo.

Ranma loved Akane.

And now he was making out with her in the Tendo garden, where anyone could see them.

"Hey, guys," she spoke at last, looking away from them, unable to meet their flushed features as they hastily got up, being more than two metres apart in less than one second. Ukyo continued: "You better watch out where you do such things, next time it could not be me."

"Ucchan…" Ranma said, not really knowing what to do. Why wasn't Ucchan angry? Why was she looking away and seemed so sad?

These were more or less the same thoughts that were running through Akane's mind, and she also managed only to utter: "Ukyo, you're not…"

Ukyo looked up and smiled sadly.

"No, I'm not mad, Akane. It's… I should have known all along. In fact, I did know all along, but I didn't want to accept it. I guess now I have to."

Ranma understood what she was saying and saw the pain behind her words. He felt miserable.

"I'm sorry, Ucchan. I …"

"Don't, Ranma, please. It's no use." She turned away again, ready to leave. "I'm going to think about this whole mess and I'll try to really… accept it. Just leave me alone for now, both of you."

She walked away, her shoulders slumped, her steps hard and quick. After she turned the first corner and got out of their sight, she started running, the tears finally flowing freely from her eyes.

Akane and Ranma stared at the spot where she had disappeared for quite some time, each lost in its own world, each sorry for the girl in their own way.

Ranma hoped that this wouldn't mean losing a friend. He loved Ukyo very much, just not the way she wanted him to. Damn his father that got him into this mess and a million others too!

Akane knew – or at least could imagine – how Ukyo felt. She had often tried to imagine the day when Ranma finally picked a fiancée and he didn't pick her. Just the thought made her feel almost physical pain. What would it feel like if it really happened? She had a vague idea seeing Ukyo's broken figure leave hastily.

Suddenly, another startling voice broke their reveries.

"What is going on here?"

This time it really was Nabiki and, though startled, Akane and Ranma silently thanked the kami again for not making her come home two minutes earlier.

"What?" Ranma finally managed to answer Nabiki's question.

"What are you two doing in the middle of the garden, on the floor, staring at nothing? Has anything happened that I should be aware of?" Nabiki asked again, her voice full of innuendo. Their flushed faces looked very suspicious and she had to find out what was going on with those two.

Akane panicked and was about to try to invent an excuse when Ranma interrupted her.

"Oh, you know, the usual stuff. We were sparring and then we ended up kissing on the ground…" he said in a very nonchalant manner.

"What?!" Akane and Nabiki screamed in unison.

Ranma just laughed at their expressions and continued: " Come on, Akane, let's get back to work."

And he pulled her up and to the dojo, leaving an extremely frustrated Nabiki behind.

"Hey, what kind of answer is that? Come back and tell me the truth!" Nabiki said indignantly, but they were already in the dojo practising again and she didn't have any choice but to go inside the house and plot vengeance. Now about that new equipment she had just recently bought…

"Are you nuts?" Akane fumed through her teeth, afraid that her sister might hear her. "What do you think you're doing, telling her something like that?"

She attacked him furiously and with her improved skills Ranma had to pay much more attention than usually.

"Well, it was the truth, after all…" he said, avoiding one of her kicks at the last moment and smiling broadly at her.

"I know but she doesn't have to know!" Akane protested.

"She didn't believe me, did she?" Ranma explained while doing a back-flip and trying to make her fall with a sweep of his leg. 'Unbelievable, she's still very focused in the battle, though she is angry and talking about something else', he pondered in the meantime. Out loud, he said: "Plus I got her off our backs, didn't I?"

Akane tried some punches but hit only air, though it was air dangerously close to her fiancé's chest. Was he getting slower?

"Yes but she'll…"

"What?", he interrupted her, "go and tell our fathers? She hasn't got anything to prove it, and as I said, she didn't believe me in the first place. We'll just have to be very careful in the future."

Akane blushed, thinking about what they had been doing. He blushed, too, but forced himself to think about her training and started an attack aimed at her head, which she avoided without struggle. 'She is getting much better every day', he thought amazed.

Akane didn't have more time to talk, since all her energies were being used up in the fight, so she soon forgot about it and concentrated on her defence and attacks.

'He is fighting back', she thought surprised, 'not full-force, but he is attacking me. Yes!'

And the training went on. And on. And on.

That night, Ukyo was lying in her bed, thinking. It hurt, but she was strong and she'd survive. She'd even find somebody else to love. Just not that idiot Tsubasa or something…

The biggest problem was her honour, though. Her father would never accept her failure if there wasn't at leas some kind of retaliation. Marrying Ranma was now out of the question, and she was sure the cart had been lost by Genma ages ago. What could she do? Who could she turn to for help in matters of honour, since she couldn't go to her family? Genma was out of the question two, he didn't know what honour was anymore. And she knew all too well that Ranma didn't have any good ideas about the matter, or he would have put them in practice.

A sudden idea popped in her mind. Who was the one person who cared enough about Genma and Ranma's honour that would try anything to find a suitable way out of this engagement?

Nodoka, of course.

She finally decided that a visit to Ranma's mother was imperative and she finally was able to go to sleep.

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Chapter 15 – Shampoo's plot

O_O O_O O_O

Time is just so unfair, Shampoo thought in the Nekohanten kitchen. Time was something she didn't have. And time was something this stupid potion needed. It had been days since she hadn't seen her Airen and she was really getting worried about what that violent kitchen-destroyer might do to him while she was being forced to stay away. The potion needed constant attention and nobody but Shampoo could do it: Cologne had to run the restaurant and Mousse… She would be happier if he didn't know about it at all.

Was that a pang of guilt she was feeling there, deep down in her heart?

'Nonsense', she thought, snorting aloud, 'Amazons don't feel guilty, they do what has to be done and simply don't think about it.'

A wooden spoon in her hand, her eyes lost, her expression slightly agitated, Shampoo was carefully mixing the recipe.

'But…'

She sighed. No use in thinking about that. She had a mission to accomplish and nothing else mattered. It was a question of pride, after all, Amazon pride.

She would never admit it, but she had sometimes found herself wondering why she was doing it. Why was she still running after Ranma when obviously he would never love her and never willingly come to her village?

Love?

She had thought so at first. Ranma was indeed handsome and strong and everything, it wasn't hard falling for him. On top of that, he didn't want her. And it was a first time for Shampoo. A man who didn't want her. Mousse and any other man back at the village would have given anything to make her choose them, yet this Japanese boy refused her.

No, it wasn't love.

Love was something she didn't allow herself to feel. If she acted out of love, she would be a fool like Mousse. Mousse…

Oh, no, it was something much more important to her Amazon-raised mind.

It was sheer pride.

She would never ever admit defeat. Not to anyone. And especially not to a foreign man who didn't want her.

Her expression hardened to a fierce frown, as she nervously stirred the potion. She would win in the end. And if that wouldn't bring happiness, neither to her nor to those around her, at least her pride would be restored.

She looked down at the potion. If only this thing didn't need so much time!

During a moment of peace in the restaurant, Cologne looked at Shampoo. The frown on the face of her great-granddaughter and her tense composure spoke volumes to the old matriarch, yet all she could do was watch.

Leaving Shampoo alone, she returned to her own cooking, her mind only half set to the task before her. The other half once again lost in the chaos that her life had become in the last few years. Chaos brought by that young boy she insisted on calling Son-in-law.

Was it all worth it?

He would never make a good Amazon, he was too stubborn and would never learn to be subdued enough to the matriarchs and women of the village in general. He didn't love her great-granddaughter, he didn't respect their laws and defied them in every possible way. Yet…

Yet for her, it really was worth it. Despite the fact that she doubted that Shampoo could ever succeed, despite the problems and everything, it was too much **fun**. Life at the village was quite boring before this whole mess had begun, so she really was glad that he came along. At least she had something else to think about besides her death and her memories.

She left the kitchen smiling in a strange way.

"Shampoo, don't forget: this is most probably your last chance," she said passing by the young girl.

"Y… yes, great grandmother, Shampoo knows."

When she was alone again, Shampoo sat on the floor, her back to the wall, her concoction in front of her. Just a few more hours.

A few hours later, a small purple kitten entered the Nekohanten and went directly to the bathroom. Splashing herself with hot water from the furo, she changed back to her human form and instead of dressing up, she just remained there, on the cold tiles, her face hidden behind her purple hair, her body barely visible anyway in the dim light from the street.

Another failed plan. Another chance gone to waste. Another hard blow to her ego.

Images of the afternoon rushed through her thoughts uncontrollably. The bowl of ramen that almost got broken when she jumped off a fence with her bicycle and landed badly on a wet spot. Was that an omen of what was about to come? She never had problems with her bike, yet today she had almost fallen off it. Ranma and Akane sparring in the backyard of the Tendo home. Seriously sparring. And a strange mix of warmth and coldness flowing between them.

"You're so slow! Even Kuno is faster!"

"What! Take that back, you baka!"

"Kawaikune!"

"Pervert!"

She could hear their voiced in her head. The same old insults, yet there was that warm aura coming mostly from Ranma, but also from Akane, that she couldn't memory made her shiver.

When she had seen them, she had put her best smile on and rushed to her Airen the bowl in her hands. She couldn't glomp him because her hands were busy, so that violent kitchen destroyer was able to pull Ranma away before she managed to shove the food in his mouth.

"Ranma you can't eat her food, you didn't want to eat mine because you said you weren't hungry…" Akane had screamed.

Shampoo sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, her eyes fixed on the tiles in front of her. If only… If only she could just forget the whole damn thing. She felt tears in her eyes. Maybe she could cry, now. Nobody was there, nobody could see her defeat.

Ranma hadn't listened to Akane but had got suspicious when she had insisted so much that he and only he eat the ramen. Even when she had managed to give it to him, he wouldn't eat it but just studied it carefully, saying something about it being similar to some of Akane's cooking.

"Ranmaaaaaa!" Akane had yelled and the chaos had begun.

Akane. Always Akane. Shampoo had known from the first time she had seen her that she would be a problem, but she knew she couldn't just kill her because Ranma would have resented that way too much. She crossed her arms above her knees and hid her wet face against them. How was it possible that things always had to go wrong for her?

In her red anger, Akane had hit the bowl with the ramen making it fly off Ranma's hand. And Shampoo's plan went down the drain.

But that hadn't even been the worst part, Shampoo thought bitterly in the darkness of the bathroom. No, the gods could never go so easy on her. The results had been much worse and now she had to work hard for another day to prepare the antidote to her potion because… She shivered at the memory.

The bowl had flown toward the house, and since the sliding doors to the dining-room were open and Soun Tendo and Genma were playing their eternal game, they had witnessed the whole thing. Genma, being the glutton and the idiot that he was, jumped for the bowl and caught it. To Shampoo's utter horror he swallowed the contents before she could snatch it away from him and to her even greater horror, she was the first person he saw when the potion kicked in.

"Sh… Shampoo…"

The tone he used when he had called her name… she could never forget it. It would be in her nightmares forever.

Genma had moved towards her and she had jumped away. She knew she was in trouble. Genma was fast and skilled enough to catch her if she wasn't really careful. She only had time to notice Akane shouting at Ranma telling him something like "I told you!". Then she was out of reach, running and jumping as fast as she could, trying to lose Genma.

She did lose him in the end. But it had taken a long time and a splash courtesy of the old lady which allowed her to disappear in one of the gardens and then finally find her way to the Nekohanten.

Now all she had to do was wait. She knew he would find her, sooner or later. She had to prepare the antidote. And she would.

Just as soon as she would stop crying and stand up in all of her Amazon pride again.

Footsteps.

She cringed. Was he already here?

She dared look up and sighed in relief when she recognised Mousse's white robe.

"Shampoo, are you ok?"

He wasn't wearing glasses, he couldn't see she was crying, could he?

"Shampoo ok." Good. Her voice cracked just a tiny little bit.

"Oh Shampoo…" Mousse sighed and kneeled beside her, extending her arms to hold her but ready to be shoved away any minute. Shampoo never allowed him to see her weak moments.

When his hands made contact with her naked back, he couldn't believe she wasn't pushing him away again.

When his hands touched her she couldn't believe she was allowing him to see her naked, in more ways than one. But she was tired and… Mousse was there. He was always there…

Just this once, she promised herself.

Mousse didn't allow himself to think about her nakedness, he just held her, caressing her hair softly.

Cologne silently returned downstairs, shaking her head, a smile of pity on her wrinkled face.


	2. 2 - A Solution to Ranma's Problems?

Author's notes:

I promised myself that I would not post any author's notes but I'll make an exception this time, since I really have important things to say. :P

My conscience would not let me rest, even after almost ten years. This story is still alive in my head and I really intend to finish it. And since I have promised things before and haven't kept those promises, I will not promise much this time. I don't know when I'll be able to post the next chapter. I have some of the continuation written down but not all of it, unfortunately. I promise I'll finish it, I just don't know when. If you're still interested, here's a brand new chapter: much longer than the rest, with a slightly different style, I guess – but hey, it's been years! I've changed, hopefully I've grown and even more hopefully, some of you will still like what I write. If you are still with me, thank you!

Chapter 16 – A Solution to Ranma's problems?

'Poor Shampoo, your pride will never let you admit you can't have Ranma. I'm just waiting in vain, aren't I?' Mousse thought holding his love's sleeping body. Shampoo was so emotionally and physically exhausted by the events that she fell asleep in his arms. Mousse didn't really know what had happened, he didn't ask and she didn't tell. So when he realised she was sleeping, he took her to her room, put her to bed and tried not to look too much at her perfect body. God, he wanted her…

He shut his eyes, pulled the covers and left the room hastily. In the kitchen he found Cologne cooking something in the pot she always used for her potions.

"Are you at it again? Hasn't she had enough for today? Don't you ever just give up?" he attacked her shouting.

Cologne looked up from her pot for a moment.

"Don't be disrespectful, Mousse," she warned, continuing with her cooking.

"But Shampoo…" Mousse insisted.

"… is a big girl and knows what she is doing." Cologne interrupted. Mousse shut his mouth and looked away angrily. She was and elder and he had no right to…

"The experiment went wrong today and I'm preparing the antidote," she interrupted him again.

Mousse sighed.

"Don't they always? It's all just useless. And besides you know perfectly well it's been way too long to…"

Cologne interrupted once again, in a very stern voice. "You are right. I know perfectly well and you should not question an elder's decisions, male."

She looked away and let him know the conversation was over. Mousse opened his mouth to say something but her attitude made him change his mind. So he just left to wait the tables.

Ukyo felt as if her stomach was turning upside down and inside out five times every minute. Every step was harder, every breath shallower. What would Nodoka think of her? Would she say she was a quitter? Would she just laugh at her and send her away? Would she…?

No use thinking about possibilities, she decided. She had to go through with this and by her giant spatula she would. She set her jaw and walked towards the Saotome home with renewed resolve.

"Well, Ranma, I guess this time you should really thank me for not letting you eat that stuff," Akane said looking at her fiancé, still a bit angry because of Shampoo's appearance. They were still hanging out in the garden, uncertain about what to do about the whole situation.

"I guess so, yeah." Ranma mumbled. "Jeez, did you see Shampoo's face when pops stared at her that way? Thank kami my mother wasn't here or …"

"What have I missed?"

Ranma froze, hearing his mother's voice from outside the door. Still the same old reflex coming up when she surprised him, the same instinct to empty a glass of water over himself to change… but now she knew about his curse. He sighed mentally in relief.

"Uhm… nothing really…" Ranma stammered, but Akane interrupted him.

"Shampoo came over with her usual spiced food, only Genma ended up eating it instead of Ranma, so…"

"So?" Nodoka looked at her evenly.

"So…,"Akane thought how to put the matter nicely. "So now he's following her around because of the potion… but I guess she'll give him the antidote soon enough."

"Yeah, much sooner than she would have given it to me, I bet." Ranma added sarcastically.

"Is that so? So you still have a problem with this young Amazon, Ranma? How are you going to resolve the matter, son?"

Ranma looked to the floor. His mother was reprimanding him. Thoughts of a very sharp katana crossed his mind.

"It is not very manly to lead that poor girl on if you have other standing engagements, is it?"

"But mother, that idiot of my father engaged me to practically any girl my age we came across in those ten years! How can I 'resolve' the mess he put me in? And besides, there's still Ukyo…" His temper cooled, remembering the girl's sad face when she had been living earlier.

"About that, I have a very important announcement. Ukyo came to talk to me today about this situation and we came to an agreement."

Ranma paled, Akane almost fainted. Ukyo had been quick! What was she up to? Was she trying to get Nodoka to her side?

"Don't look so frightened, son, it's not very manly," Nodoka frowned.

"I'm sorry, Mom, it's just that… You know…" he looked at Akane for help, but for once she was speechless just as much as him.

Nodoka sighed.

"Yes, I do know. Genma has managed to bring a lot of problematic relationships upon you…" She looked pointedly at Akane and at the latest hole in the wall courtesy of Shampoo. "And that is exactly the point where we'll start to solve this mess. Ukyo has kindly agreed to release you of the engagement…"

The relief on Ranma's face was only comparable to that on Akane's. Was Ukyo really giving him up?

"…but…! Nodoka continued slowly, making sure she had all their attention. Ukyo looked down a bit sadly.

"…but her honour cannot be restored if she doesn't get back her dowry, which of course Genma had sold years ago," Nodoka finished looking sternly away toward the town.

"So how can she…?" Akane dared to ask, afraid of what Nodoka and Ukyo had come up with, horrifying images of a house filled with concubines passing quickly through her mind.

"As I said, since Genma is the only one responsible – as Ranma was only a child at the time – Genma will have to repay Ukyo the amount the okonomiyaki cart would be worth today, including the interest that has accumulated up until the present day."

"But he hasn't got that kind of money, Mom, you know it. And how much would that thing be worth right now anyway?" Ranma asked a little disappointed.

"One million three hundred and fifty-five thousand yen," Nabiki answered coming out of the house, the trademark smirk on her face.

"What!" Ranma screamed.

"And what do you know about this, sister?" Akane asked suspiciously.

"I asked her to calculate the approximate value of Genma's debt to Ukyo and she was kind enough to help."

"And with no charge!" Nabiki added.

"Why would you do that?" Akane asked surprised.

"Because I'll save a lot of repair money if the craziness stops around here. Ukyo is one of the causes, Shampoo, Ryoga, Kuno and Kodachi being the other ones on a regular basis. Can't get rid of the occasional prince kidnapping you, little sister, I guess…" Nabiki smirked crossing her arms.

"Thank you, Nabiki. So it is one million three hundred and fifty-five thousand yen that my husband owes you, Ukyo. As we agreed, he is to work at your restaurant any time you need him for a symbolic amount of money, while the majority of what he would earn goes to pay his debt to you."

"At the going rates, he will have to work for you at least the next couple of years, Ukyo," Nabiki added giving Ukyo a piece of paper with all the figures and calculations of Genma's debt and how he was to repay it.

"That seems a great solution," Akane said. "I wonder if you'll be able to convince uncle Genma to do it, though."

"Yeah, old Pops in never going to work at Ucchan's almost for free for a couple of years!" Ranma agreed.

"Oh, but he will, my dear," The glint in Nodoka's eyes could have stilled the strongest of men. Ranma was glad it was not directed at him.

"You see, he signed a contract with me. One that says that he would make a man among man out of you, or else he would commit seppuku." Ranma paled again. "You have nothing to fear son, despite the curse, you have proven time and again that you _are_ a man among men and your part of the contract is fulfilled. Genma's, though, is not. That you are indeed a man among men is certainly not his merit, for he seems to have done virtually every possible thing to prevent that from happening. His honour still binds him to the contract. He has not made a man among men out of you, _you_ have done that by yourself. What he has managed to do is to put you into a series of problematic relationships, as I said, and now, if he wants to restore his honour, he will have to start resolving these problems. The alternative to this agreement with Ukyo would of course imply his fulfilment of the contract obligations…" Nodoka tightened her grip on her ever-present katana.

Ranma felt the chills run down his back as he thought about his mother's plan. It might work. If she was on their side, he would have no choice. Ranma looked at Akane and saw a mirror of his own expression: barely hidden joy, utter joy for heading toward a solution of all the mess that was their life. A partial solution, but nonetheless a solution, Akane thought, Shampoo would be a harder problem and Kodachi…

She looked at Ukyo. The chef looked unhappy but resigned. Maybe things would turn out right after all.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!" Ranma went on and on shouting that single word all around the house hours after his mother's speech, happy that the problem with Ukyo was settled. 'Well, almost settled,' he thought for a second, but he was convinced his mother would make Genma do the right thing.

"Ranma, could you stop that?" Akane shouted coming out of her room, her hands on her hips and a stern expression on her face. "I'm trying to study here!"

"Jeez, Akane, just let me be happy for a while here, will you?" Ranma protested doing a back flip and landing right in front of her. Her scowl melted to utter surprise when he quickly leaned toward her and kissed her sloppily.

"One of the biggest problems in my life is about to be solved," he exclaimed smiling and and started to jump around in joy again.

"Hey! Somebody might see," she hissed feeling her cheeks redden, then she continued, "I know and you know I'm happy about that, too, but I still have to study and so do you," Akane said turning back to her room. Ranma made a face at her back and continued expressing his joy in the funniest ways. "Besides," Akane continued looking at the window with a tired expression, "that is just _one_ of your problems. Shampoo and Kodachi are still there…"

Ranma stopped in the middle of his victory dance and looked at her wearily.

"Oh, you had to remind me, didn't you," he lamented. "I guess I'll have to go and make sure Shampoo gives the antidote to pops before my mother finds out exactly what kind of effect the potion had on him…" he added and turned to leave. Akane sighed and shook her head, feeling a little sorry for raining on his parade. Maybe she could make it up to him ..?

"Come here, you dummy."

"Huh?"

She met him in the middle of her room and stopped just a breath away from his body.

"Close the door, Ranma," she said and he lifted a leg behind him and kicked the door closed without moving away from her.

Putting her arms around his neck and pressing her bosom to his chest, she looked into his surprised eyes. She noticed that the surprise melted quickly into desire when her lips neared his. She closed her eyes, the last image imprinted in her mind being a deep blue full of love and promise. She had just the time to think '_I guess he really does love me…'_ before her mind checked out in favour of a sea of shared desire, soft moist lips, demanding tongues, daring hands: hers, scratching his muscled back lightly under his silky Chinese shirt, his, skimming the sides of her breasts, her hips and her thighs down to the hem of her short skirt and back again, underneath – _oh God!, _both their minds screamed – searching for the line of her panties ('_would he dare cross that line_?' her addled mind wondered) and finding only the bare skin of her bottom. '… _oops, forgot …'_

Ranma lifted his head abruptly in awe and felt dizzy for a moment, most of his blood having rushed south and being locked somewhere in the close vicinity of Akane's … lack of …

"Y-y-you …" he stuttered, eyes wide and incredulous as his thumbs still subconsciously caressed her soft skin _there_, while inadvertently pressing her against his throbbing manhood.

She blushed furiously and hid her face in his red shirt to hide her embarrassment, but did not try to move away or dislodge his hands.

Seeing that she wasn't going to say anything, he dared voice his surprise.

"Are you …naked … under there?"

A muffled "Noooooo!" came from the depths of his shirt and something that he couldn't quite catch followed, ending in something like …_song_? He shook his head to clear the thumping in his ears.

"What? Did Happosai steal all your …?"

"No!" she interrupted. Raising her eyes briefly to look at him, she hissed, "_It's a thong!"_ and buried her head down again.

More confused than ever, Ranma parroted, "A thong?"

Akane sighed loudly and without really lifting her head – and also without really thinking about it much – she said in a small, shy voice: "Move your hands up a bit."

The moment she felt his hands move she remembered – _how could she have forgotten?!_ – that it was her _bottom_ that they were talking about. A mix of shame, desire, expectation, shyness, trepidation flowed through her tingling skin as his fingers skimmed her cheeks up, up, up, so softly and tentatively that it was almost tickling, still up, up, excruciatingly slowly, up to the lacy border of her very first thong.

Ranma's fingers stopped, startled, fingered the stretchy material, traced it outward, to her hips, then back to the centre, where they found a little bump … a … a bow? _Akane was wearing very skimpy panties with bows?_

Ranma splayed his hand widely and pulled Akane against his hardness almost roughly, his control slipping. He needed her, he needed to feel her body, her whole body, he needed to feel her all around him – he lifted one of her tights and pressed himself into her hotness even stronger – he needed to feel her mouth, her lips, her tongue, her breath, and one of his hands travelled to her face, lifted it from his chest and tilted it back for the most intense, most needy kiss either had experienced yet.

Akane was burning, from her moist core to the tip of her short hair and her pink toe nails. She needed to be closer, needed to feel all of him, everywhere, inside out, she lifted her other leg and crossed it with the one he was holding up behind his backside. God, he felt so good against her, his lips a bit rough against her, his hand entangled in her hair as if to hold her in place – _as if she'd dream of moving!_ – and his other hand caressing her inner thigh, so close to that thin thin thong, the front of which was rubbing against his crotch through his thin thin Chinese pants and she could almost feel…

A short breath, because air was essential and thank God bodies knew how to breathe by themselves. Forehead against forehead, chocolate and blue swirling like a vortex and then the distance becomes too much and mouths are sealed again and bodies move in the oldest rhythm …

_Thump_.

Tip-tap, tip-tap, tip-tap…

Thump-thump.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

Someone – _Kasumi? Nabiki? – please, no! _– left the first floor and descended to the living room.

And through the haze of blazing desire, two young people returned to earth, panting. How they heard those steps and doors closing and opening and closing again through the thumping of their hearts was anybody's guess. So used were they to being interrupted, that it took very little time to realize the potential danger of their position. And yet they didn't pull apart as quickly as they probably should have. Mirroring deer-caught-in-headlights expressions in their eyes, twin sighs of relief at hearing the steps heading _away_ from Akane's room and then … shaking and a small noise through her noise. Twinkling eyes, mirth. Joy. Giggling. And his chest is vibrating with contained laughter, too. So happy. So simple. She would laugh out loud but she doesn't want to attract unwanted attention. Her legs are still hitched around his body, after all.

Still giggling, eyes full of happy tears, she climbs down his body and he lets her touch the ground but not move away. Searches her smiling eyes and closes the distance for a last, chaste kiss.

Then he's waving from the window seal.

"See you later!", he says. Then leers a bit. "I _really_ want to _see _you later!"

She laughs and flutters her eyelashes coyly. _When has she ever learned to do that?_

"Don't be late!"

A cold shower, some centring through meditation techniques and a trip to a certain restaurant later and Ranma was re-entering the Tendo home furious. And desperate.

If his mother had found a way to resolve the Ukyo problem (_well, actually Ukyo had mostly resolved that problem by herself, hadn't she?_), she definitely wouldn't be able to do much about the Amazons. _How could they ever be so damn stubborn?_

Going to the Nekohanten with the excuse of the antidote for Genma, Ranma had hoped to discover what Shampoo's plans were about him and Akane – she was sure that she would come up with something else – and he had even tried to talk some sense in the two female Amazons. Shampoo played stupid and tried to grope him. Cologne just smiled sardonically.

"Young boy, you don't seem to understand," she had said when he had told her again and again what he would never ever go back to the village with them and had asked her to stop pestering him about it. "It doesn't matter what you want. Amazon law is unbreakable. And besides, this is the most fun I've had in the last twenty years: why would I give it up?"

He had turned and run home, something in him reaching a breaking point. They would never give up. Even if Akane managed to beat Shampoo (and he was starting to believe that that was not completely impossible, given enough time), they would come back again and again and again, with their stupid potions and dangerous plots. Wasn't there really anything he could do to stop their nonsense once and for all? Wasn't there any way to get through to them?

He was so absorbed in his anger and desperation that he didn't really see or hear the door to Nabiki's room open so he bumped directly into it, head first.

"So what happened to that martial arts grace you're usually so proud of?" Nabiki smirked, looking down at his body sprawled on the floor.

Ranma regarded her dazedly for a moment. Then he smiled a very sinister smile.

"Nabiki!" he drawled.

Something in that smile, or in that new glint in his eyes (_some sort of new determination?_), made Nabiki's back shiver.

If anybody had asked her, Nabiki would have come out with a ton of good reasons, cutting the repair expenses being the top one. But in all honesty, she did it for him, for Ranma.

'Boy, can he be charming when he puts his mind to it,' she thought while studying her nails and waiting for the person on the other end of the line to pick up.

Ranma was a bit naïve and too honour-bound for her taste, but he was nothing if not strong, loyal and in many ways perfect for her little sister. _'And kinda cute,_' she snickered to herself looking at the latest batch of photos she had taken of his male form during one of his workouts.

What? Just because she had decided to help him out, didn't mean she should lose all her revenue, right? And this time she had asked for his permission (he was less reticent to give it when his male form was the object of her 'attentions'). She jumped a little when the person on the line picked up.

"Hello? Gel? Oh, yeah, sorry, sorry, I know you don't want to use that name here in japan. Akira? Is that better? Well, ok. Yeah, I know, I know, don't worry about it, it's forgotten …," she paused for effect. "…if you could just do this little thing for me?"

The look in her eyes would have made 'Akira' cower even more if he'd seen it.

'_Time to collect that debt and put to use my resourceful Chinese connections.'_

"About that book you mentioned a while ago … yeah, that old law book. What was the exact title, you said? _The Great Joketsuzoku Amazon Tribe's Book of Law_? And you say you've written your dissertation about it? So you could say that you know it very well, right? Oh, don't worry about that, I know it's an ancient book and it doesn't have anything to do with common Chinese laws of today. Still, you would be able to … Really? Quote entire passages? I'm impressed. What about loopholes? No? Oh, now, Ge… I mean, _Akira_, we both know that no book of law is free of those, right? A couple? Well, I just need one little …"

After the evening meal, Akane pronounced in a very irritated manner (the words 'stupid' and 'baka' came out more than a couple of times) that she and Ranma had to study for an English test.

Ranma followed her scratching his head and with a sheepish expression directed at his mother, who had stayed for dinner. She regarded him with a frown, tightening her grip on her ever-present katana. _It wasn't overly manly to be scared of one's fiancée, right?_

'_Well,'_ she thought, _'I guess Akane can indeed be a tad … violent, at times.'_ And she released her tight hold on the sword, sighing.

Then she noticed the two older men trying to sneak up the stairs to listen in to the children and she scowled.

"Genma, Soun, please come and have tea with me. We do not want to upset the children and ruin their nice study time, do we? After all, a real man must have a decent education, I should say" she said loudly and in a cold tone, flicking the sheath of her blade open with a very audible noise.

"B-but …" Soun tried to argue turning toward her, but Genma, seeing the determined expression of his wife and catching a reflection of the fading sun on the katana's sharp blade, quickly pulled him down the few steps and tried to smile pleasantly for his wife.

"But of course, Nodoka dear. How would you like your tea?"

"Ak-Akane, are you angry?" Ranma tentatively asked his fiancée after following her into her room and closing the door, scenes of their earlier encounter fleeting through his mind, intermingled by memories of mallet-induced flights through the sky of Nerima for offences much less grave than … _But she was the one who started that, right?_

As he closed the door, though, out of the blue, he found himself with an armful of Akane (_huh, she's getting faster every day, I guess the training is paying off …_), her strong arms tight around his neck, her body pressed to his, knocking the breath out of his lungs, her thighs (_fat? She's silk, tight, strong velvety silk… velvety or silky? Gotta …) _around his hips as his hands automatically went under her buttock. _Just to keep her from falling onto her … mmmmhm, silky velvet … lacy …_

Her lips interrupted his musings on the finest points of fabrics.


End file.
